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ITC Judge: Motorola Mobility Infringed Microsoft Patent
chrb writes "An International Trade Commission judge has issued a preliminary ruling that Motorola Mobility infringed one of Microsoft's patents. The disputed patent covers storing a meeting request on a mobile device, and was rejected by the European Patent Office as being 'obvious.' The judge also ruled that six other Microsoft patents were not being infringed. Experts say that this will strengthen Microsoft's hand in collecting patent fees on Android. Microsoft recently claimed that it now collects patent fees on over half of all Android devices sold."
The European Patent Office was right.
Let all those Android device makers under several patent assaults from the like of Microsoft and the like do this:
Remove the "infringing" functionality from your phones but create publicity that the features are available through an extension-like add-on like similar to Firefox or Google's Chrome browser.
Then let's see who these patent litigants will sue. How about that?
How ironic
Both of those are evasions at best, and very ugly examples of media spin.
This decision is exactly the opposite of success for Microsoft.
Just another example of Slashdot astroturf from the acknowledged masters, I guess.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
It is quite easy to get preliminary injunctions. But that doesn't mean a thing. Microsoft is trying to bully competitors into licensing of their trivial patents. A dying software empire.
The ITU is hardly an authority on the validity of patents.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
MS and also Apple think their trollish patent practices will strengthen them, but it is already apparent this whole patent bullying of late is turning into one big PR nightmare.
It makes waves over at Facebook and Twitter. For example lots of former Apple drones and die-hard fans are now turning away from the once idolized company. Open and friendly competition is gaining traction (the green robot stamped devices come to mind) because of this bad behavior. You accumulate patents to prevent Texan patent troll to abuse you, that is fine, but you can't use them offensively to prevent market entry for others, specifically using broadly applicable text hyperlink patent or some other creepy software pantent, that is just plain evil.
I know, it's probably deemed as a baited question but I asked it anyway. Why is the patent not overturned in the US when it's turned down in the EU as to obvious?
I'm not looking for the "Because they have money and can pay people off" answer, or the "they suck and are the Debil answer".
Should not the EU patent finding be valid evidence to the USPTO that the patent should be invalidated therefor Android vendors do not have to pay Microsoft any fees?
Really we need to get a movement together and get the issue ruled on by the Supreme court, and make it illegal as it was 30 years ago.
"I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no moh!"
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
The article links to the patent that was found to be infringed. Personally, I'm more interested in the other 5 patents. Are the FAT patents among them? This could affect device manufacturers far beyond Android, smartphones and tablets that have been paying Microsoft for the privilege of not being sued.
So, what's so unusual about this ?? End around !! Pay up or Game over !!
At least Apple doesn't make Android ODM/OEMs pay !! That's because Apple has class, elegance, style, and all that jazz !!
The fact that Microsoft's cash register rings every time some "M$"-hating hipster buys a googlaphone because "It's Open and Free! Wheeee!" is friggin' hysterical.
They are facing the very real reality that Windows 8 will flop. Tens of thousands of PC's are being replaced with ipads both at home, and in the enterprise. This trend is likely to explode in 2012, when a large enough portion of the non developer population will be using them to matter. Sure, they're doing extremely well in video games, but their own mobile efforts haven't panned out, and probably won't. If Microsoft loses the Enterprise to Apple, they will be effectively marginalized in their core business. So what do you expect them to do? Those that can't make an honest living litigate. If the entertainment industry has taught us nothing, it's that.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
It's a meeting request, just like any other meeting request, but now we do it on your cell phone -- PROFIT!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Since noone has a patent (or can get one) on "Sending data via email" then no one should be able to patent "Sending ******** data via email"
Why don't we just have Apple, Google & Co., Microsoft and all the mobile manufacturers just exchange a billion dollars with eachother every other week and just skip the lawyers. I didn't even read the article or the summary because I just don't care anymore. Everybody's wrong, software patents and at this point any patent dealing with mobiles or phones is bullshit, and the whole process of suing everyone who even approaches the market will just stifle innovation and kill good ideas.
Where "everyone" == "the lawyers" and has nothing to do with either businesses or consumers.
Do people at Microsoft honestly believe they are better off in a litigious software hell than if software patents were abolished? I'm sure Microsoft's lawyers believe they are better off, but what about everyone else?
I suggest you objectively compare even the N900 from a few years ago versus a current Nokia phone with WP7 and then get back to me about whether it is a great OS or not. It's a huge step backwards for Nokia let alone comparing it to other vendors.
Even the reviews that sing the praises of WP7 go on about how it "holds promise for the future" which looks to me to trying very hard to say something good about it without anything concrete to suggest.
You totally miss the implications of his post (possibly because he forgot to add the phrase "all of" to "Once all of the patents are identified"). Just because Microsoft decided to use X numbers of patents against Motorola doesn't mean they don't have another Y waiting in line for the next court case. So your quoted source makes no difference.
Since there is no legal way to require Microsoft to reveal all of the patents they think might infringe on Android, his post is, rather than FUD, merely fantasy. The fact that it is fantasy showcases a major problem with the patent system. The law should be that if someone pays licensing fees, they can require the party they are paying to reveal all of their patents which they feel are infringed (by that particular technology), and any patents which are not revealed are automatically rendered toothless (against that particular technology), even against third parties. (Now I'm fading into fantasy... <sigh/>)
> no one has resources to track down all the reasons why they are crap, and sue Microsoft over each and every of them.
You also missed a second major problem with his post: there is no legal penalty for filing an invalid patent. Or at least, for all practical purposes.
DEC's ALL-IN-1 had meetings (calendar management via email) in the 1980s.
*Still* negative function...
I think patent trolling is Microsoft's long term strategy in the mobile market. No one want Windows Phone 7. Or 8, or 9 or that matter. They aren't stupid in Redmond, just evil. I think planting Elop in Nokia is part one in the plan to first destroy Nokia's stock price, then either have Elop just sign over Nokia's patents, or buy Nokia cheap. Nokia has a truly giant war chest of mobile patents. Microsoft, once in control of those can just sit back and make everyone, Apple included pay them more that those companies make themselves. This would fit with Microsoft's general policy of intimidation and sneakiness, and makes sense given how horrid Window Phone Anything is. I know WP7 can't connect to the internet other than DHCP. I wonder if they even fixed the inability to copy and paste. In any case, M$ is not putting any money into that doomed ship. Extortion is much more of their style.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
This is why Microsoft is pulling out of CES. They're not going to invent anymore, just patent troll so they have no need to be at CES any longer.
Best Christmas present ever.
I say MS is a patent troll, along with Apple, and a lot of other companies. They aren't quite as repulsive as some of those east Texas companies that have never marketed a damned thing in their history, but they are still patent trolls.
I think that several of those east Texas companies work for MS, like Acacia.
File thousands of silly patents, and sue MS right back. For major companies, like Motorola, that should not be a problem. Maybe several companies could sue MS at the same time - sort of MS, Apple, and Oracle, and suing Android companies at the same time.
Maybe, when the court are completely clogged with silly patent lawsuits, the government will fix the broken system. But, frankly, that is unlikely. For US politicians, campaign contributions from MNCs are their life's blood.
He's just a bureaucrat issuing an administriative ruling. He can decide whether or not a patent is being infringed by an import but is not empowered to question it's validity. The ITC has a history of favoring protectionism. This decision can be appealed to a real judge in Federal court, of course.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
The whole thing is asinine, in reviewing the patent from the link given. There appears to be no actual code or hardware design specifics included, just a lot of vague ideas. We can not, and should not, award patents for vague disconnected ideas without actual implementation, this is a fail.
From summary:
So please remind me exactly which Android devices are sold without paying patent fees to Microsoft. So I can go and buy one of those.
Microsoft, just like many other companies, owns shitloads upon shitloads of crappy patents, and no one has resources to track down all the reasons why they are crap, and sue Microsoft over each and every of them
So, no one has the resources to evaluate them to see if they are crap and yet you somehow already know it. Those fucking idiots !!!! Why didn't they just ask you? Clearly you're underutilising your incredible powers here. You could rule the world and turn it into the Socalist hellhole you escaped from.