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Motorola Countersues Microsoft Over 16 Patents
FlorianMueller writes "As if there weren't already enough patent suits related to smartphone technologies, Motorola just announced its widely anticipated countersuit against Microsoft. Its subsidiary Motorola Mobility filed complaints with two US District Courts (Southern District of Florida and Western District of Wisconsin). Motorola already litigates with Apple in those and other courts. According to Motorola, the patents relate to technologies in the fields of operating systems, video codecs, email, instant messaging, object-oriented software architectures, WiFi, and graphical passwords. Motorola claims Windows, the Live messenger, Windows Phone, Outlook and other Microsoft products infringe. Motorola's action is no surprise given that all of the companies sued over patent infringement by Android — with the exception of Google — have already countersued."
Its like a giant space battle.. but involving black suits, lots of money and lawyers.
Here's hoping none of them are taken seriously in the courts and all these silly, strategic patents are called what they are, invalid and worthless. (And hope that the technology, on whomevers side doesn't suffer)
One can hope right?
While not covered well in the press, like IXI, Motorola is also demanding that Microsoft stop shipping "infringing" products, though in this case they speak of virtually the entire Microsoft product line. This can become very interesting. I think Microsoft picked on the wrong company to try and bully and run it's protection racket on this time. They seem to have inherited SCO's footgun...
I think that we are all waiting for Windows Phone SP2 to be released before we take the plunge... Hey that's what Microsoft has trained us to do after all of these years.
We need a "Major Player" summit of the largest technology companies. They can all get together, argue over who gets to sit in which chair, what they'll have for lunch (or brunch if they're feeling really ornery) and then have a knockdown-dragout fight over who's giant projector to use during the meetings. That should keep the suits and lawyers busy so the engineers back in the labs can actually get some work done.
All this patent litigation is going to result in a patent pool, locking new competition out of the smart phone market for 20 years. Hope the tech companies enjoy their little circle-jerk. All it's highlighting to the rest of the world is the stupidity of some of the patents involved.
This is a Mutually Assured Destruction fight, but unlike others with this strategy I'm not going to be hit.
You would have thought that these Fortune 500 companies would figure out that the only winning move is not to play.
I am officially gone from
In the language of the statute, any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,”
Microsoft just patented patent lawsuit process, so that will stop all these pesky lawsuits.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Customer: "I would like to buy a cell phone."
Seller: "Sure! What are you looking for?"
Customer: "I would like to buy a cell phone from a company that is neither suing nor being sued by other cell phone cell companies.
Seller: "Sorry, all serious cell phone manufacturers are either suing, or being sued by other serious cell phone manufacturers."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
With Motorola, Mircosoft, Nokia, and Apple having launched various lawsuits and counter-lawsuits against each other, I think that untangling this mess in the proper order is quickly starting to become an NP-complete problem.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Yeah, I could see this sort of thing coming when I heard that the whole point in building up a patent portfolio was to keep others from suing you in some sort of MAD deterrence setup.
They can't sue us because we'll sue them in retaliation? When has a lawyer EVER said "no, you can't sue them, that'd be stupid"?
Its a patent story! The swpat guy will be here any minute! with links! WITH LINKSS!!!!!1
Anyone know why Motorola chose this court??
Who's out there!?! Codewarrior! But I thought you were dead!!!
If all of these judges would put temporary injunctions in place, banning the cell makers in their case(s) from selling infringing phones, the cell industry would come to a screeching halt. That's what the cell industry has effectively asked for, by everyone suing everyone else for patent infringement. Just take them all at face value, and stop all of these infringers from shipping anything. These patents are mutually assured destruction, right? Let the MAD begin!
This whole cyclic undirected graph of lawsuits with varying levels of reference cycles will never be resolved. At some point pretty soon it'll just deadlock out, unable to move one suit forward because it depends cyclically on another suit.
Experiments and other stuff
The Nissan Leaf has a cell phone data connection, but it could be much more functional using a Linux kernel preferably Android :P
For once , a few of the big boys are at odds with each other, which can only mean profit, for the consumer. As it stands, each time the big ones go at it, they end up going into bloodlusts, that provoke better sales on items that normally are overpriced, and will tend to bring down the overall price point the companies tend to look for....
M$ vp1>Our 7 phone is not doing well
M$ vp2>Might be becuase google is coming out with android and apple is too
M$ vp1>We also have those nasty patents cases coming, what are we to do...
M$ aggressive vp3>We make the 7phone half the price it normally would be, like the xbox at first (price war casualty again) we were selling them at a loss to gain market shares, as PS3 were being sold at a loss too, so we could do the same thing...
M$ vp1 & M$ vp2>Arrrr, yes, bring on the war, we'll get them......
More than hope. I really do think this is the beginning of the end for software patents.
You have these multibillion dollar companies with gigantic patent portfolios. The implied threat is there. "Don't sue us, or you'll get it in return." And the big players don't sue each other over trivial things that infringe because of the threat of mutually assured destruction. That's always been the rule, until recently.
Gigantic forces in reserve, a tangled web of alliances, then a single shot fired is what started WWI.
Something this inherently unstable as our current state of affairs doesn't take much of a push - we've seen it before.
The only problem is that these multibillion dollar companies place a monetary value on their patent portfolios. When those dry up all these companies will have to revalue themselves in the marketplace. Stocks will tank for a while. It'll be bad.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
“In industries where the dynamics of technological change display a cumulative and incremental character, the protection of “commons” of freely accessible knowledge is likely to yield much higher rates of innovation than the enforcement of strong intellectual property rights.” - A. Nuvolari
The cell phone industry was going along just fine until outsiders started to use there weapon of choice "Patents" Apple,MS,Google are outsiders who bought there way into the cell phone industry. I should have been a lawyer because when its all said and done there the ones laughing all the way to the bank.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Here's some background on this and other phone cases:
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._Motorola_(2010,_USA)
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Phone_patent_litigation
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Patent_non-aggression_pacts
Besides phones being a growth market, this problem is aggravated by the fact that a bunch of big hardware companies are suddenly in the same market as a bunch of big software companies. Unlike their usual competitors, these buy guys don't yet have patent non-aggression pacts, so they just go to war instead.
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
Well, we all knew that patents have been used in business as a nuclear deterrent against being sued for patent infringement. But now that someone has broken their "cold war" stance, we are seeing a nuclear crossfire that is just about to get interesting.
After we see all this going on, perhaps we will see some of the big players come out against software patents to end the chaos. It's going to become very expensive... even for the big players.
Because the judicial system is paid for by you, the taxpayer. So instead of doing important things, like processing violent crime, the courts get DDOSed now by a bunch of companies who like to play games with the system and you pay for it to happen.
Experiments and other stuff
Finally, they've decided to use these patents for their intended purpose, to stifle innovation!
If only the PTOs publicly advertised patents as munitions against competition instead of insurance for inventors, it would simplify the whole process...
Judge: Everyone, roll for initiative. Ok, Motorola, your OOP patent does 2D8 x 10 million dollars of damage, and has a litigation speed of 8. Microsoft, what's your armor class?
I don't expect the developing world will just sit on its thumb as US companies waste their resources playing political games with patents rather than focusing on delivering innovation.
Would you rather these companies go galt? they spent the time and money developing their products, so they have the right and the duty to protect theor PRIVATE PROPERTY. Fuck all you statists who want to steal from me to pay for your health care, but refuse to allow companies to protect their intellectual property.
Is this where Bill Gates has to hand back all his ill gotten gains and call it a wrap, move back into a garage? One that opens automatically when the owner approaches the door?
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
Microsoft already patented the 4th least significant bit, thereby blocking your ability to file suit over 16 patents. Just drop one and you'll be ok.
For those who didn't live through the Cold War, MAD stands for "Mutually Assured Destruction." Just like the Cold War, and for that matter WW-I, everyone in the tech industry has been stockpiling weaponry (patents) for years in order to protect themselves from each other. The argument for the situation is always that only a lunatic would dare upset the status quo. Unfortunately, it only takes one lunatic.
Regards;
Indeed, patent litigation has become almost "de rigeur" among the tech heavyweights. Two resulting concerns are, of course, (1) issues of antitrust, and (2) actual innovation getting sort shrift in favor of, as some have put it, "the biggest patent patent portfolio." Thank goodness USPTO Director David Kappos has reportedly made a commitment to maintaining high patent quality, in the midst of this patent arms race. Let's hope he and his agency stick to their guns.