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OIN Posts Details of Microsoft's Anti-Tom Tom Patents

Posted by kdawson on from the does-this-filesystem-make-me-look-fat dept.

number6x writes "LinuxDevices.com is reporting that the Open Invention Network has posted the details of three of the eight patents used by Microsoft in the Tom Tom suit (which Tom Tom settled last month), asking the community for prior art. These patents cover aspects of the FAT file system. You can find them on Post-Issue.org — see numbers 5579517, 5758352, and 6256642. OIN CEO Keith Bergelt believes that these three patents are of tenuous validity and will probably not survive a review. Bergelt believes that there's a good chance that the USPTO may well invalidate them before the end of the year.

4 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Indicative of the brokenness of the system by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly, you should quit your 9-5 job and become a lawyer.

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    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  2. Irony? by HunterZ · · Score: 2, Funny

    It would be delightfully ironic if Microsoft's use of these patents to troll Tom Tom results in those same patents being invalidated.

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    Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
  3. Re:Why didnt TomTom look for this stuff? by interkin3tic · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps because Tom Tom's business model involves building and selling GPS devices, and not fighting patent battles?

    Makes me glad I chose the buisness model I did: Making and selling GPS devices, and also running a secret assasin organization which kills patent trolls that get in my way. With poison darts.

  4. Re:first post by Fluffeh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Silly boy, there is clearly Prior Use of that here on Slashdot.

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