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Also, it was Microsoft that targeted Android with patents on things such as FAT32. If you sue me, all gentlemanly agreements are off the table. Essential paten

by minot 11y ago

Also, it was Microsoft that targeted Android with patents on things such as FAT32. If you sue me, all gentlemanly agreements are off the table. Essential patent is a loaded term. I argue all non-trivial patents are essential. If a software patent isn't standard-essential (I'd argue standard is yet another loaded term because FAT32 is a de facto standard for interoperability) it should not be a patent at all. I think you'll agree.

throwawaykf05 11y ago
But "taking gentlemanly agreements off the table" is not all they did. For all the noise Google made about abuse of patents in the smartphone wars, they, through Motorola, were the only company that was actually penalized buy a federal court for abusing patents, and made to pay damages to Microsoft. Sure the lawsuit started before Google acquired Motorola, but this judgement happened two years after they completed the acquisition. I'm sure you'll agree that asking billions for patents that a court finally decided were only worth a couple million is pretty egregious.