B&N Sought DoJ Inquiry Over Microsoft Patents

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday November 8, 2011 @10:14PM from the sanity-check-in-aisle-four dept.

Meshach writes "There's an interesting story at the WSJ about how Barnes & Noble lobbied the Justice Department to open a new antitrust probe against Microsoft regarding their abuse of the patent system. B&N saw Microsoft filing a slew of frivolous patents in order to stop the development of handheld devices, potentially affecting their Nook reader. The article mentions how Microsoft has a similar racket going with various Android device manufacturers, but B&N does not have the cash reserves to support similar licensing, and is fighting back." Reader qantr points out related news: Chinese telecoms firm Huawei has confirmed that Microsoft is demanding royalty payments over products running Android.

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Re:One need only look at the patents by Rockoon · 2011-11-08 23:46 · Score: 0, Troll

what about the principles behind the EUs decision to force microsoft to license protocols for interopability
Microsoft did try to license them. B&N refused to talk. Here we are.

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"His name was James Damore."