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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
Patents don't work like that. You don't fight the big players. You kill the small guys. In this case, Kyocera is the small guiy. It's a great system.
>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.
Google could actually fight back, while the handset vendors are far more likely to buckle if their business is threatened with a block. They also resist tipping their hand to reveal what patents they want licensed, but Google would actually demand to see it - and possibly file a patent counter-suit.
That's an example of moral misery. In my opinion.
For everyone who thinks that Microsoft has turned over a new leaf under Nadella, here's the proof that they are still evil at heart.
Disclaimer: IANAL. This post is, however, legal advice, and creates an attorney-client relationship.
I keep hearing about Microsoft's Android patents but I still don't know what they are?
The patents are that they will tie you up in court for years at costs way beyond what you'd pay if you just gave in.
Apparently it's a new idea when you add: on a cellphone to it.
Be seeing you...
I really hope Kyocera doesn't back down & settle out of court. I'd love to see this go forward and see if Microsoft's patents really would hold up legally. I doubt they would, but that's all theory 'til it's tested out.
So much for Microsoft's reassurances that they increase their patent portfolio for defensive purposes.
It's sad that the patent system is the biggest obstacle to becoming an inventor and entrepreneur. The minute you make anything successful, the sharks gather.
That surely wasn't the intent of the patent system.
@ 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
All 7 U.S. Kyocera phone owners cried foul!
There was a time when you had to patent a thing, as opposed to an abstract idea. Imagine if someone had been able to patent "using a mechanical device to cool the air". Refrigeration technology would have been held back for decades.
The nature of the way patents are written is that they *are* hidden from public view -- while in plain sight.
And are they necessary? Economists Michele Boldrin and David Levine make a *very* compelling case that they are not. The purpose of patents and copyright is to provide incentive to cause creators to create ("Promote progress" in the words of the Constitution), but the evidence that they show makes a really strong case that intellectual property actually retards progress.
And Gates made that point himself in an internal Microsoft memo many years ago. "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today."
Ignorance killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.
ah but paying ms and then getting the money back in wp, windows etc licenses - and cross licenses - helps samsung.
it keeps the smaller players out from the market.
never noticed how the western phone market is lacking all the new manufacturers? that's not a coincidence and this is how they're keeping them out.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
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.