Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Sues Motorola Over Mapping Patents
jfruh writes "The mobile patent wars continue, with two of the world's biggest tech companies about to blunder into direct conflict. Microsoft holds a number of patents that it claims give it rights over mobile map applications that overlay data from multiple databases (map info from one database and store location info from another, for instance). Many Android vendors already pay Redmond licensing fees for their mapping apps; now Redmond is going to court in Germany to sue one of the holdouts: Motorola Mobility, which is of course owned by Google."
> map applications that overlay data from multiple databases
Sounds blatantly obvious to someone skilled in the art...
I've got a solution for the whole shebang. Sue the USPTO every time a court rules they issued a bad patent - it's they who screw up the most, after all. Pretty soon they'll have no money left and will either shut down or will make each patent application a 100 million dollars.
As soon as someone sells hardware along with the software, software patents turn into hardware patents and then you can sue even in Europe. It's magic!
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
> map applications that overlay data from multiple databases
Sounds blatantly obvious to someone skilled in the art...
Microsoft Engineer 1: Jesus, dude look at this, look at this idea I had! ... ... what if -- and stay with me here -- what if we pulled map data from two different databases. ... what you're talking about would require something like ... ... no, wait, even then we've only got one database connection in the code. That's it, from there you're stuck, you'd have to send both the prepared statements to the database ... unless ... wait, hold the phone ... unless you had ...
Microsoft Engineer 2: I don't get it, what am I looking at here, this C# code is light years beyond my comprehension.
Microsoft Engineer 1: I know, right? But here, let me step you through it. You remember how we were pulling data from one database and displaying it?
Microsoft Engineer 2: Yeah, that itself is, like, on par with the gods
Microsoft Engineer 1: Right right but it got me to thinking
Microsoft Engineer 2: No way dude, that's impossible. Look, we use one prepared statement here to get the data
Microsoft Engineer 1: Two prepared statements?
Microsoft Engineer 2: Oh. My. God. It could work
Microsoft Engineer 1: Two database connections?
Microsoft Engineer 2: *starts shaking his hands in the air excitedly* Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, this is going to be a game changer. We better tell Ballmer -- quick, get the patent officers on the phone, this is fuckin' huge!
My work here is dung.
Owners of the "how dare you compete with us?" pool, you mean. Same thing though. Does MS realize how quickly this will backfire? You know they're only using German courts to avoid publicity and pull an East Texas, which is not going to happen here.
Does anyone know why two American companies are suing each other in Germany? Are these German patents?
Two reasons that I can think of...
1. The patent in question is european (although it appears to be also filed as a US patent as well).
2. The law firm they are using, Bardehle Pagenberg, has apparently won more injunctions against Android than any other law firm in the world.
AFAIK, the patent in question actually came into Microsoft's possession after it purchased Multimap.com (a UK based company) back in 2007, which jives with the european flavor of this dispute.
PJ from Groklaw: