Slashdot Mirror
Federal Court Grants Microsoft Expedited Appeal
patentpundit writes "On Friday, August 21, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted Microsoft an expedited appeal of its patent infringement loss to i4i Limited Partnership. On August 11, 2009, Microsoft lost a $300 million judgment for infringing the XML patents of i4i by selling Word. Microsoft was given 60 days to stop selling Word, or implement work arounds that did not utilize the infringed technology. Microsoft filed an emergency appeal with the Federal Circuit, and requested a stay of the permanent injunction that will force them to stop selling work 60 days from August 11, 2009. The Federal Circuit granted an expedited oral argument, which will take place on September 23, 2009. Microsoft requested an administrative stay of the permanent injunction, which was denied, and then filed a petition to stay the injunction pending appeal. i4i has until August 25, 2009, to respond to Microsoft's request to stay the injunction pending appeal."
Why do I get the feeling that MS will find a way to weasel out of this? They seem to have been caught directly lifting code from someone else's stuff who was relying on that to make money and putting it into their own. No uncertainty, no sympathy -- This is a classic Embrance, Extend, Extinguish move for which they are famous. It's premature to say justice has failed (again!) so maybe I'm just being cynical but history has taught me that might makes right in the U.S. and too often in the courts the winner is the one with the most cash and the one who is willing to use the most dirty tricks.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
Live by the sword, die by the sword. M$ has been working towards world domination using patents and monopoly power. Google is usurping the monopoly position, and others are swarming like insects around a dying carcass with respect to software patents. What goes around, comes around.....
In this case, they've been trying to do everything but. So far, their defense strategy has been to attempt to paint i4i as a patent troll who never had a product, and therefore should not have been granted a patent. That's kind of silly considering that i4i actually does have a product, and if you look at the screenshot on this page describing one of their products, it's apparent that they have had an implementation of their patent for quite a while (Word 2000 is pictured).
So far, they haven't actually attacked the patent because doing so might invalidate one or more of their own patents. They haven't attacked the patent system or any patent laws not only because they have considerable resources invested in that patent system, but because any change in the patent system really needs to happen at the legislative level and it really isn't likely that a court is going to invalidate the entire patent system.
As much as I'd like to see Microsoft directly attack the patent system itself and fight for patent reform, I just don't think it's going to happen in a court room, and I don't see Microsoft fighting a system in earnest that they have profited so much from.
And I don't blame them. It isn't up to them to bring about patent reform. It's ultimately up to We, The People.
My blog
They partnered with i4i until they learned enough about the code, then kicked i4i in the butt and came out with their own implementation.
This is worse than when M$ accuses Wine/Samba etc for 'cloning' their products.
Wine/Samba etc coders didn't have the chance to READ and STUDY the original code.
It isn't up to them to bring about patent reform.
So M$ is owned and run by aliens now?
They are people and have just as much responsibility as anybody to try and fix the system. More so because they have financial clout and the ears of legislature.
Or to put it another way: being part of a company doesn't give the people involved a mystical get-out-of-jail free card to be irresponsible or unethical.
"Or to put it another way: being part of a company doesn't give the people involved a mystical get-out-of-jail free card to be irresponsible or unethical."
I disagree. We, the people of the west, have allowed our governments and corporations to turn the ideals of free market action into an unholy marriage between all three arms of government and the powerful elite of the private sector. We have allowed powerful members of industry and government to usurp the right to do anything they want, so long as they can afford lawyers to justify their actions, ethical or otherwise. Don't like it? Sorry, it's a two party system, and both parties play the same game. You want real change? Sorry, you won't get it by voting.
I hate printers.
Personally I like it when the trolls try these huge cases rather than their normal piddly little extortions. Microsoft, IBM, and all the big software producers are still lobbying FOR stronger software patents in more countries. As said elsewhere here, you need to reform the patent system through legislation. Hopefully M$ and IBM get beaten up enough to finally realize that patents are doing them more harm than good and get their lobbying efforts on the right side.
It will never happen, both of those companies have arsenals of patents at their disposal. They cross license them against potential opposition. Having a huge portfolio of patents means anyone suing them will undoubtedly infringe one of their own. You can bet your bottom dollar MS are trawling through their stack looking for something i4i have infringed. MS merely need to delay and delay some more, sooner or later they'll find what they want and force cross licensing or i4i having to face being sued themselves by a vastly more resource corporation. This is why software patents should not exist. Ultimately, a small number of players will control the world of them like oil, pharma, telcos etc.
i4i may have 'a product', but really isn't anything particularly incredible ... it's basically just XML authoring via parsed-back transformed output. Whoopty-do - this is something quite basic and that could and should become commonplace in many, many different applications in future. A 'product' does not make a patent-able invention. Microsoft may be abusing the system, but i4i is worse, they're still behaving like a blatant patent troll, probably because their 'product' just isn't special anymore. We're just talking about a fight between two unethical companies ... much as I can't stand Microsoft, i4i is even worse here - they're actually *doing* what Microsoft so far has only had the veiled threat of doing via their patents.
Now the real problem with all this (as well as MS's own patents on XML-based word processing) is that it has destroyed the entire purpose of XML. XML was adopted by industry as a counter-measure to the many proprietary binary "lock-in" formats of the 80s and 90s. Initially it seemed like it was going to serve this purpose, but XML is now so ridiculously over-encumbered with bogus, obvious patents that it's impossible to create any "serious" useful new XML-based applications without infringing patents. In other words, industry has succeeded in making XML the "new" proprietary lock-in format.
MS and i4i will both continue to make reams of money relative to their sizes. The real losers here are the general public, customers of the IT industry, and potential small-business competitors/entrepreneurs.
Time for a new "XML"? This time, with a stipulation in the licensing that no patents may be made over the format.
And again your post is "MSFT is an asshole, so it is good they got fucked" and my argument is no, it is NOT good they got fucked. You know why? because it is YOU that is getting fucked Chuck. Do you honestly think MSFT will just happily eat that judgment and not raise prices one single penny? Nope, they will pass that off on the millions of businesses that require custom apps that only run on Windows, who will then pass that cost onto you. Which is why I said it was a tax, since ultimately it comes out of YOUR pocket.
And as it stands now the little guy who invents something pretty much HAS to sell to a large corp, often for a very tiny percentage of what they could have got, if they even get a percent and don't have to just sell outright. Because the little guy can't afford the $10k+ to research for submarine patents, nor can he afford his own law firm on retainer to fight off patent trolls. Nowadays a case in East Texas for anyone less than IBM or MSFT equals dead company. It is JUST that simple.
So i would argue that no matter how big an asshole you think MSFT is supporting a crooked system with crooked verdicts (which is of course why anyone files in East Texas in the first place) is just as fucked up, no matter who the victim is. Just because you are enjoying some Schadenfreude out of it doesn't make it just as fucked up as if someone who made a little FLOSS app was the one getting the reaming. I would also argue it is that SAME attitude that have kept third parties out of the USA political system, because folks are willing to vote for the Dems even when they are crooks because they promise to "fuck the rich" while they'll vote for the Repubs who are crooks because they promise to "fuck those lazy poor and immigrants". It still don't make it any less than 100% fucked up, no matter how you slice it.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.