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B&N Sought DoJ Inquiry Over Microsoft Patents
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.
Support B&N with your wallets. Most of all, don't buy Microsoft products.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
So the next best thing we can hope for is that the interests of various corporations align with the general geek consensus for an open Internet and the right to develop software:
For an open Internet: Google
For the right to copy (not infringing copies): the Consumer Electronics Association.
Against patents: B&N, Google/Motorola, various Linux foundations.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
that B &N is showing MS that they have balls which other big companies like Samsung , HTC din't. It doesnt matter whether B & N succeed or not atleast they have shown the intent to fight Troll called MS. This could be the next David Vs Goliath fight.
to say WTF
if android uses VFAT.. they have to pay royalties?
what about the principles behind the EUs decision to force microsoft to license protocols for interopability, shouldnt the same apply to VFAT?
this is ridiculous
See my submission for Bloomberg's non-paywall version: http://slashdot.org/submission/1842986/barnes-noble-urges-us-to-probe-microsoft-o
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
What they're doing is avoiding a lawsuit against Google, and instead going after licensees of Android. If they went after Google, Google would fight it and thus reveal the origin of the inventions they are claiming.
They come to some arrangement, which looks like it's really a fake agreement (e.g. you pay us $45 million, and we pay you $45 million back in marketing and discounts - which is what the Samsung deal is rumoured to be). They they present the payment to them as a license fee for Android to create a false cost associated with Android.
All done under NDA so the details of the fraud are not revealed and investors are kept in the dark.
Article is paywalled. Base price (for 1 year) is E94.38. Although they do have a entry in their form for "Delivery instructions". Can I please have the weekly digital digest delivered on a 3TB harddisk?
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Because it looks like B&N is essentially arguing that it's fine to have a huge pile of software patents, but it's foul play if you actually use them.
The government (in its various guises) can't reasonably award software patents and then punish the owners for using them for exactly the purpose that they are intended, right?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I hope they include Apple in this probing as well. If you ask me Apple abuses the patent system in much worse ways that MS does. Apple loves software patents, aesthetic "patents", obvious ideas and not original ideas patents, i.e. all the thing that shouldn't be protected by patents. And they don't want you to pay for their licences, they want you to stop selling your product and get out of their turf.
A trial on Microsoft’s patent claims against Barnes & Noble is scheduled for February in Washington.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-08/barnes-noble-urges-u-s-regulators-to-probe-microsoft-on-mobile-patents.html
At least we'll finally see what patents Microsoft has been using to strong arm manufacturers of Android based phones into patent licensing. The must-sign-a-nda-or-we-wont-tell-what-you're-infringing-on tactic they've been using on everyone feels really underhanded to me, and I'm no Microsoft hater.
I figure there actually has to be something substantial in those patents to merit virtually all the big names in Android phones agreeing to license them at the amount MIcrosoft has been asking.
MS don't have a true patent claim, even under the rigged game. If they did, they'd go after Google instead of this back door NDA thing.
It's perfectly OK to hate the player if the player is creating a fraudulent market.
the android companies that have caved into MS and paid them. Hopefully B&N and Google/Motorola will win out over MS, while those companies that signed with MS will be forced to continue paying.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Microsoft is taking ownership of other people's code through the abuse of software-patents. This is scary. The notion that you cannot sit down in front of your computer and write successful code without Microsoft attacking you with a team of lawyers using dubious and obvious software-patents is scary. All you code are belong to Microsoft. They didn't write it but the own it anyway. This egregious behavior is something that Microsoft actually promised in their Halloween document. This is not just against Android. Its campaign to sink open source particularly Linux in the marketplace. By making it an expnesive hassle to deploy Linux vendors will just use windows instead. Its not noble. Its sleazy. MIcrosoft's Steve Balmer has been treating to use sleazy tactics and they are doing it now.
Here is how it works :
Microsoft Approaches open source company
Microsoft: My what a nice open source company you have here
Microsoft: You know this is a dangerous neighborhood you need some protection.
Business Owner: Protection? From who?
Microsoft: Well...From us really.
Microsoft: Oh and sign this NDA you cannot talk about this to anyone. Got it?
Its egregious sleazy software-patent extortion tactics.
The real question is how does the greater open source community stop them. So far only Shuttleworth has pledged to fight them in court if they come knocking on Ubuntu's doorstep
If you think this is about Android then you are sadly mistaken. This is about LInux and open source victims include:- TomTom, Buffalo, IO-DATA, Kyocera MIta etc. None of those produce Android products. They are now beating drums that Open Office and Libre Office violates their patents. Look for them to start suing anyone that distributes Open Office or Libre Office in a successful product.
This is their strategy against open source in general If you write open source software that competes with Micorosoft expect them to make it very expensive for you in the marketplace if your product becomes successful.
Just because "B&N does not have the cash reserves to support similar licensing" doesn't mean the patents are frivolous. Given that most Android manufacturers have signed licensing agreements with MS, it suggests that the patents are decidedly _NOT_ frivolous. If they were or even if the average person thought they were, several other manufacturers would have pushed back and defended themselves in court.
If they have a valid claim, Microsoft should not be allowed to hide it under a blackmail-as-nda bushel basket. If they do have something valid, I suspect it is very trivial to work around and they know it. Hence their wisper campaign against Linux / Android whilst steadfastly refusing to show actual proof.
And when did Brinksmanship become an acceptable / legal business practice? Perhaps it was part of the Supreme Court horseshit decision about Corporate Personhood...
The title and summary both suggest this is over. I was under the impression that the request to the DoJ had just begun. That is it should read, "is seeking" not "sought"?
grape - the GNU free, open source rape
You certainly can't find a bigger shakedown artist then the EU business regulation committees. An unelected body who are virtually immune to any graft and bribery investigations.
I worked for a company that used all its resources to fight off McAfee patent law suites. By the time the battle was won, the attorney's owned enough of the company all they needed was to convince one other investor to become a patent troll company. The only way out was to sell off all of the assets; intellectual property, customer base, hardware, etc. Essentially, the win was for a McAfee competitor and the attorneys. They purchased the intellectual property that was "verified to be a patent McAfee infringed upon" via the money the investors had put into the business. It sounds like Huawei could become a pretty nasty patent troll.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
MS and other companies are only obligated to license patents under F/RAND terms if those patents are incorporated into various standards. For nearly every other patent, the cost to license (if the holder decides to do so) it is completely up to the holder, and can indeed by arbitrary and exorbitant. Could be worse... they could simply refuse to license the patents at all.
vFAT is what provides long filenames in FAT16. As long as you limit yourself to using 8.3 filenames on the disk, you wouldn't need a license - and since it's only Windows that needs this driver, the filenames can be chosen specifically to fit within that naming scheme.
Just another wannabe fantasy novelist...