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Microsoft Signs Android Patent Deal With HTC
adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft and HTC have signed a patent deal that will provide broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for HTC's mobile phones running the Android mobile platform. The announcement comes in the wake of a massive patent suit from Apple, which alleged 20 instances of patent infringement on the part of HTC."
I think you are misunderstanding what MS is doing. What they are really saying is Android violates their patents, but HTC their biggest Windows Mobile partner is in the clear (from MS patents) with it's Android devices. Other OEMs that don't make similar deals may get sued by MS for using Android. I was wondering when MS would join this mobile patent orgy.
Google should sue anyone who makes a deal with Microsoft. Because what's the point if you have to pay Microsoft for using Android?
Here I thought Google was going to stand behind the manufacturers who were supporting Android. I wonder where they went when Microsoft called HTC?...
Agreed, I don't understand this thought process going around the web and this story that MS is protecting HTC from Apple. MS saw what Apple saw, HTC was the lowest hanging fruit of the OEMs. Now, if WinMo7 wins, MS wins. If Andriod wins, MS wins. There was always a question of how MS was going to compete against free. Well, that was answered. An OEM can either pay a license for WinMo7 from MS or get Android and pay a royalty to MS. Also, by settling, the infringing patents are not shown (unlike the rather ham handed move by Apple). FUD to other OEMs will do just fine, thank you.
Nice move MS. First you have two horses in this race. Second, did it without having show your infringing patents. Finally, somehow got thousands of idiots on the web to believe that you are the good guys and just a another soldier by your side in the battle against Apple. That last move is what impresses me the most. MS PR department has really come a long way since the '90s. Welcome back MS. You are your best when you are evil.
no, it's more like Episode V, when Lando tells Han that they've just signed "a deal that'll keep the empire out of here forever"
mod me funny
which one is farnsworth and which one is rca so i know who to root for?
http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae408.cfm
ip law doesn't reward inventors. ip law rewards assholes with big pockets. as this case shows, ip law is a farce, its a way for big companies to waste a lot of money on lawyer whores
if you are the little guy who thinks that copyright is for authors, and patents are for inventors, you're a fool
ip law is for distributors and large corporations. real creators are screwed. stop being naive
in the name of the highest ideals of western democracy, fuck ip law, it should be actively undermined and destroyed by anyone with morality and principles. we can't work through our governments and legislators, they're all whores to the patronage system. its up to the common man to destroy the entire rotten edifice
i'm not talking about revolution or any such nonsense. i'm talking about piracy. i'm talking about hitting them in their wallets. with any luck, we can bankrupt the organizations that profit from the idea of "intellectual property", and thereby destroy the validity of the idea itself in anyone's eyes
aarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
is it FUD when every HTC andriod phone comes with an additional microsoft license fee? Is it FUD when people bust their ass coding software and MS comes along and charges for that software? Is it FUD now that any attempt to sell devices with Linux on it will result in a license fee? passed down to you? This is the REALITY not FUD. its REAL. And the more the Linux community buries their head in the sand and just write this off as FUD the more MS will run this extortion racket ala SCO behind their backs. Microsoft can go FUCK itself.
Linux is no longer free in a commercial environment. If you run Linux you owe Microsoft money. That's the bottom line. Who the fuck woulda thunk?
what this does is makes linux more expensive to deploy for manufactures than windows. And since Linux and company could not care less and really does not care Microsoft will win.
I don't pretend to know what "broad coverage" means, but if MS wanted to fight Apple, doing via open source proxy would be an ideal way to do it. HTC does the fighting and MS provides the ammunition. All the risks are with HTC and MS is at least partly insulated from bad press it would get in a direct confrontation with Apple. And the situation could be very bad for Apple: they are going after an open source platform, with all the bad press that going to bring on them, but they are also going against one the most intimidating patent portfolios there is, and one of the few companies with a war chest to match theirs, and they would have a lot to lose, while MS doesn't.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers - Pablo Picasso