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Microsoft Sues TiVo To Help AT&T
Julie188 writes "Microsoft is suing TiVo, claiming patent infringement. Microsoft is doing this because TiVo has sued AT&T — and AT&T happens to be Microsoft's largest customer of Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology. Microsoft says that TiVo has copied Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology in its DVRs. If Microsoft wins, it would effectively block TiVo from selling DVRs without a licensing deal with Microsoft."
WTF. I thought PJ was losing it these days by being a anti-MS zealot, but that incoherent rant takes the cake. I didn't really know what she was insinuating by going round and round till the end of the article. As if any company would just spending millions defending another company if it's own interests weren't at stake.
In short, the PR version is that Microsoft is defending AT&T as a Good Samaritan.The reality as I read this is the Microsoft is defending itself, because if AT&T loses, Microsoft faces having to pay yet another pile of bucks for having infringed someone's patent, just like what just happened to it in the i4i v. Microsoft patent case Microsoft lost and is appealing. That is what is at stake in this picture
But the Microsoft statements themselves that PJ quotes say the same damn thing.
D. Microsoft Has a Direct and Substantial Protectible Interest in Defending Its Customer.
Since the filing of the Complaint, AT&T Inc. has contacted Microsoft and demanded that Microsoft indemnify AT&T Inc. against Plaintiff's claims in this case. [Quan Decl. Paragraph 2] AT&T subsidiaries distribute Microsoft's Mediaroom software to run on set-top boxes for U-verse. Microsoft cannot decline to intervene and defend against Plaintiffs' infringement claims aimed at such software without risking damage to Microsoft's relationship with AT&T, Inc. and its subsidiaries. In addition, Microsoft has other television and internet service provider customers. To the extent that Plaintiffs' infringement theories are directed at functionality provided by Mediaroom software, the claims in this case cast a potential cloud of uncertainty over Microsoft's relationships with other actual and potential customers.
Microsoft's software and technology are implicated by Plaintiff's infringement allegations.
Groklaw(along with BoycottNovell.com) has become a anti MS witchhunt. They're no longer objective in any sense of the word. Too bad, I loved their SCO coverage.