4 ms·
Microsoft may not be what it once was but they're a big enough beast that I'd be thinking twice about this sort of move. But that's kind of micro level stuff,
by Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
Microsoft may not be what it once was but they're a big enough beast that I'd be thinking twice about this sort of move.
But that's kind of micro level stuff, at the macro level it's just another volley in the on-going patent wars where it seems that lawyers will win and the companies and the consumers lose.
Common sense says it will end soon but it really doesn't feel like that's happening.
- beedogs 15y agoCall me a pessimist, but I don't see IP law in general ever getting any better.
- ma2rten 15y agoCall me an optimist. But I think some time soon there will be such a ridiculous lawsuit, that even politicians/the electorate will see that it's time to review IP laws.
- JonoW 15y agoI think the problem is that all the companies involved (Apple, Microsoft, Google etc) are American; if the products of one American company are banned somewhere, another American company will invariably benefit. I think if an American companies products were being banned in the US to the benefit of a non-US company, only then will US law-makers start raising their eyebrows.
- Tyrannosaurs 15y agoI'm not necessarily thinking that the laws will change, just that we'll go back to the situation of a few years ago where enforcement was a little less vigorous. Merely the potential for dumb rather than the ongoing implementation of dumb.
- sek 15y agoGoogle and Microsoft are at war since Eric Schmidt became CEO, so there are two beasts fighting anyway. Microsoft broke the gentleman's agreement by using software patents to cripple Android.
- taligent 15y agoWhat gentleman's agreement ? Companies have always sued each other over patents since they were introduced. What IS new is abusing the principles of FRAND that underpins every standard today. I mean what is going to happen if some 2-bit patent holder of the WiFi standard decides to hold everyone to ransom and demand $1000 per patent license ? Google could not be more evil if they tried right now.
- pavanky 15y agoIt says something that Microsoft is the only company that has been sued so far. May be Apple will be next, but these are the companies that initiate patent wars against their competitors. Now that the companies are hitting back, you think it is a bad precedent ? I'd be more worried if they start doing it to smaller companies than giants like these.
- bad_user 15y agoCompanies have always sued each other over patents since they were introduced. That's bullshit, as software companies suing each other is a new phenomenon. Otherwise you would have heard of IBM suing Microsoft and Oracle into oblivion from the 90'ties. What really started this trend was Apple entering the mobile space with the iPhone, suing and getting sued by others. God forbid other companies following this trend. Considering how Nokia is doing these days, imagine if they started suing everybody else with their huge GSM-related portfolio. Or IBM, which has such a huge portfolio that it most likely touches on everything technology-related. We are really heading heads on to a full war in the software industry that will cripple innovation, with the winners being those that produce less products then everybody else.
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoApple didn't start this. In my opinion, Amazon started in, in 1999, when they sued Barnes and Noble over the prototypical stupid software patent: one click buying.
- ZeroGravitas 15y ago