Slashdot Mirror
Windows 7 Under Fire For Patent Infringement
eldavojohn writes "A patent issued in 2003 called 'Method and system for demultiplexing a first sequence of packet components to identify specific components wherein subsequent components are processed without re-identifying components' is now owned by Implicit Networks, who has recently claimed Windows 7 infringes upon it with its Filtering Platform. This is used in Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Implicit is seeking a jury trial and damages. A shocking turn of events; you actually want to cheer for Microsoft this time as Implicit is nothing more than a patent licensing company (troll) and has done battle with Sun, AMD, Intel and NVIDIA."
These folks delay technology advancement and don't actually produce anything themselves.
I hope microsoft wins this. Of course, they will, because there's no one on earth they can't buy if they try hard enough.
The only real winner is the lawyers.
Can't make me root for Microsoft. I hope they lose, and the jury awards the other guys an infinite amount of money. Maybe then we'll see some reform.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
-- this patent is bogus.
De-multiplexing has been around for a long time (circa late 60s or early 70s).
But, even with that out of the way, the patent is basically describing getting offset data after the de-multiplexing to then get at the data.
Both have gobs of prior art in their own rights. As well as this being obvious to anyone skilled in the areas of communications and programming.
The patent office needs a spanking.
Since it is only the lawyers (and trolls) who make money off of this, why aren't those companies banding together to kill software patents?
I can understand copyrights on software.
Is it because those companies see their profits from such patents as larger than the occasional cost of buying off a patent troll?
If they like this system so much, I'm sure they will have no problem paying out to all the patent-holders they infringe upon, according to the same idiotic legal principles they believe should protect their own works.
Of course, if any more than a handful of crooks started following these rules, that would make the software industry impossible. Not even Microsoft could ever know what they infringe. Even if the baby jesus came down from heaven today and told them the four hundred thousand patents they infringe, they would be lost again tomorrow, when 10,000 more patents were filed.
The only way this absurd system of legalized corporate mugging is truly going to end is when Microsoft and the other lobbyists behind it themselves lose Real Money (i.e. billions of US monopoly dollars) to other patent holders.
I am wishing Implicit all the best in their bullshit lawsuit.
Tired of Political Trolls? Opt Out!
A shocking turn of events, you actually want to cheer for Microsoft this time as Implicit is nothing more than a patent licensing company (troll) and has done battle with Sun, AMD, Intel and NVIDIA."
Please don't tell me what I want to do.
In fact, I *don't* want to cheer for Microsoft. Or Sun. Or Apple. Or IBM. Or even Red Hat (much).
Any company that holds software patents and has not worked to eliminate software patents is complicit in this fucked-up mess. This is especially true of any company that has attempted to enforce their software patents (I'm lookin' at you, Microsoft, IBM, Tivoli, Oracle, and any number of other companies).
Yes, patent trolls are the scum of the earth, right there with spammers and people who use off-ramps and shoulders as passing lanes. But those companies that hold software patents and do not fight to eliminate software patents are part of the problem; those that hold software patents and have actively fought to maintain the current system are even worse.
So fuck 'em both.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Not true. All the stalkers of those in the club would join, because they don't need to be told about it. Then all their stalkers. It's stalkers all the way down...
SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.