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Microsoft Asks US Court To Ban Kyocera's Android Phones
angry tapir writes: Microsoft has asked a court in Seattle to ban Kyocera's DuraForce, Hydro and Brigadier lines of cellular phones in the U.S., alleging that they infringed seven Microsoft patents. The software giant charged in its complaint that some Kyocera phone features that come from its use of the Android operating system infringe Microsoft's patents.
IIRC Google negeoated patent protections/licensing for certain things in android, anything beyond that is the responsibility of the phone manufacturers because it's their software changes
Google is compliant; Google currently pays Microsoft for each Google branded handset that runs Android. All other manufacturers also pay MS for each Android handset they sell. Kyocera has not signed on yet apparently but they will need to also sign a licensing agreement with MS. Remember to pay your MS tax Android fanboys.
>complaint that some Kyocera phone features that come from its use of the Android operating system infringe Microsoft's patents.
Wouldn't that mean Microsoft should be going after Google, and not Kyocera? Google produces the software, after all.
Good point, but (given that IANAL) when you litigate issues like this, you don't go after the company with truckloads of cash that's highly motivated to fight it to the last breath in court. You pick a smaller target that's more likely to settle. Not only getting you the cash, but also establishing a precedent.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
@ ZorinLynx: "Wouldn't that mean Microsoft should be going after Google, and not Kyocera? Google produces the software, after all."
:Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: Patent trolls under attack, but not dead yet.
It would except microsoft knows it doesn't have a legal leg to stand on and the smaller players are easier to extort than the behemoth of Mountain View, California.
@Sylak: "IIRC Google negeoated patent protections/licensing for certain things in android, anything beyond that is the responsibility of the phone manufacturers because it's their software changes"
No, google never negotiated patent 'protection' from Microsoft in relation to Android. Microsoft has refused to reveal what these patents are. but is quite happey to fund Patent Trolls to go after legitimate companies. See
Google: microsoft android patent list
Then you will see articles detailing the Microsoft/Android patent situation.
The list of patents was secret until last year, then China spilled the beans.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/310-microsoft-patents-used-in-android-licensing-agreements-revealed-by-chinese-gov/
Well, it seems that despite Microsofts NDA to try to keep its patents secret, the Chinese government simply published the list of claimed infringing patents Microsoft asserts. Sadly its in Simplified Chinese, but the english in brackets tells yo what they're about (badly spaced).
It's difficult to take fluff like this seriously (Method and System for Managing Changes to a Contact Database?? Method And System For Configuring A Timer?? Garbage FFS, the patent office joking again).
Common Name Space for Long and Short Filenames
Method And System For Configuring A Timer
Loading Status in a Hypermedia Browser Having a Limited Available Display Area
RadioInterface Layer in a CellPhone witha SetofAPI's Havinga Hardware-Independent Proxy Layer and a Hardware-Specific Driver Layer
System Provided Child Window Controls
Context Sensitive Menu System/Menu Behavior
Flexible Architecturefor Notifying Applicationsof StateChanges
Handheld Computing Devicewith External Notification System
Browser Navigationfor Devices Witha Limited InputS ystem
Methodand Systemfor Managing Changes toa Contact Database
Simulating Gestures ofa Pointing Device Usinga Stylusand Providing FeedbackThereto
Highlevel Active PenMatrix
SoftInputPanel SystemandMethod
Synchronizing OveraNumberof Synchronization MechanismsUsing FlexibleRules
MonitoringEntropic Conditionsofa FlashMemory DeviceasanIndicatorfor Invoking ErasureOperations
Methodand Systemfor Creating Multi-Lingual Computer Programs by Dynamically LoadingMessages
Communicating Multi-Part Messages Between Cellular Devices Usinga StandardizedInterface
Methodand Apparatus ForCapturing And Rendering Annotations For Non-ModifiableElectronicContent
Selection Handlesin Editing ElectronicDocuments
Methodand Systemfor File SystemManagement Usinga Flash-Erasable,Programmable, Read-OnlyMemory
Remote Retrievaland Display Managementof Electronic Documentwith IncorporatedImages
Computer Systemfo rIdentifying LocalResources
Event Architecture For System Management in an OperatingSystem
Exchange ActiveSyncEAS
Extended FileAllocationTable,exFAT
Remote Desktop Protocol,RDP
I assume you are intentionally pointing out that refrigeration WAS held back for decades because the ice supply companies (huge at the time) did exactly this?
Of course with submarine patents, etc these days 'decades' can be much much longer..
I have a Moto G, pretty vanilla version of Android 5.0.
It supports USB Mass Storage just fine and FAT32 formatted usb drives.