Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
That's an example of moral misery. In my opinion.
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
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.