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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."
Aye! The patent Armageddon our forefathers have predicted is finally coming to pass. Take heart, brothers and sisters, and let the mighty beasts wail and crash each other asunder, for though there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, aye, and many a lost source of income, we will be there at the end, to wage battle with the last, greatest Patent Troll left standing and umm... sic the anti-trust hounds upon it? Again? Oh, wait...
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
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"?