Microsoft Loses $290 Million in Patent Battle Fail

[killerclick]

[citation][nom]stalker7d7[/nom]I say, abolish the patent system until revisions are made to make it...sensible.[/citation]

How would the work of software developers be protected without patents?

 

[bit_user]

[citation][nom]killerclick[/nom]How would the work of software developers be protected without patents?[/citation]
Copyright protects a specific work. All commercial software relies on copyrights. Patent laws, on the other hand, protect the underlying ideas.

The biggest problem the patent system faces is validating whether a given idea is truly novel. A lot of patents have been issued that cover prior art - existing practice or previous patents.

The second issue is that of obviousness. Patents should be limited only to approaches that aren't obvious to the typical practitioner in a given field. This is a bit more difficult to prove than prior art.

Hmmm... maybe the patent system could work in such a way that rewards are offered for anyone who could duplicate the approach, given the problem. A bigger reward could be offered for anyone who can cite prior art. That would enlist market forces in helping to avoid bad patents. The first part would be kind of hard, since patents are usually worded in a very general way. The second part should be pretty straight-forward, though. The cost of the rewards could be covered by the filing fees.

Hmmm... maybe I should patent that!

 

[invlem]

I still believe patents should be limited to holders which actually plan on pursuing their patents.

Example: Time limitations, if you are granted a patent for "X" idea then you should have to put reasonable effort into developing "X", if you make no attempts to develop "X" within a specific time frame, the patent should be made void and open to the market again.

This method would at the very least kill off the patent trolls, yet still protect patent holders who intend on developing their ideas.

 

[guzz46]

if Linux was so superior, I wouldn't have to crawl through the net trying to figure out why my wireless card stopped working in Fedora 15

Funny, I just switched two of my flatmate's laptops over to linux as under windows 7 one was having limited wifi network connectivity problems and on the other one the network printer would randomly stop working, but both of them are now running great without any problems on linux.

I do find it rather funny that M$ now wants a change in the patent system though, I guess they don't like it when they are on the receiving end.

 

[Cylent]

[citation][nom]stalker7d7[/nom]Intel vs AMD[/citation]

Competition huh? Here's the wikipedia short version:
-In 1986 Intel broke an agreement it had with AMD to allow them to produce Intel's micro-chips for IBM; AMD filed for arbitration in 1987 and the arbitrator decided in AMD's favor in 1992. Intel disputed this, and the case ended up in the Supreme Court of California. In 1994, that court upheld the arbitrator's decision and awarded damages for breach of contract.

-In 1990, Intel brought a copyright infringement action alleging illegal use of its 287 microcode. The case ended in 1994 with a jury finding for AMD and its right to use Intel's microcode in its microprocessors through the 486 generation.

-In 1997, Intel filed suit against AMD and Cyrix Corp. for misuse of the term MMX. AMD and Intel settled, with AMD acknowledging MMX as a trademark owned by Intel, and with Intel granting AMD rights to market the AMD K6 MMX processor.

-In 2005, following an investigation, the Japan Federal Trade Commission found Intel guilty on a number of violations. On June 27, 2005, AMD won an antitrust suit against Intel in Japan, and on the same day, AMD filed a broad antitrust complaint against Intel in the U.S. Federal District Court in Delaware. The complaint alleges systematic use of secret rebates, special discounts, threats, and other means used by Intel to lock AMD processors out of the global market. Since the start of this action, the court has issued subpoenas to major computer manufacturers including Acer, Dell, Lenovo, HP and Toshiba.

-In November 2009, Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25bn and renew a five-year patent cross-licensing agreement as part of a deal to settle all outstanding legal disputes between them

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]ikyunG[/nom]Oh man.. I thought that man's shirt was a design of spots till I realized it was sweat.. What is the point of making millions when one can't even take care of their health. GO EXERCISE.[/citation]
you ever watch him speak? even if he was olympic class athlete, he would be sweating allot

[citation][nom]stalker7d7[/nom]The current patent system is a load of crap in my honest opinion.Competition allows us to innovate further. Not "I got the patent, you can't do shit" type of crap. The space race for example, we got the the moon because of competition (regardless that it was a competition for the top power in the world).So many good things come from competition, that's why there are laws against monopoly. Yet, for some reason, we have a patent system that seems to strive solely for monopoly? I don't get it.Intel vs AMDnVidia vs AMt(used to be ATI...)Pepsi vs CokeCompetetion.Without it we'd still be in the stone ages...I say, abolish the patent system until revisions are made to make it...sensible.[/citation]

it needs to be there.

outside of tech patent system mostly works. because a company could just copy the ideas.

like a car. a high end car could be taken apart, and than remade and massproduced and sold, cheaper, and relitivly close to what the expensive car is quality wise.
[citation][nom]TA152H[/nom]I also enjoy watching a parasitic, degenerate, and incompetent company like Microsoft pay a lot of money to a small company, since they've destroyed a lot of small companies by their illegal activities. But, the patent system is important even than extracting revenge against an ugly monopoly. Without knowing the actual law, the comments here are probably based on conjecture, but the key point of patents is they should promote innovation, not impede it. It's not clear in many of these cases that it's doing that. Also, Rambus does make useful technology, and has been used in computers, and is used in the PS/3. Of course their incessant litigation sometimes buries that fact.[/citation]

tech pattents, they are usualy so vauge that, in the case of ios, they tried to pattent the user interface, something thats so basic you never think its something special.

it would be if microsoft patented moving items to trash bin, or items placed on desktop. thats the patents system on the tech (digital) side.

 

[chick0n]

[citation][nom]ReggieRay[/nom]Nice to see the copycat company MS not get away with another stealing of an idea. They copied Apple in the beginning after Bill shafted the author of MS DOS and shoved him under the bus. MS then bullied, copied, stole, you name it to get where they are and people wonder why I dislike the convicted monopolist. Their OS is not that great anyway, bloated and clumsy compared to Gnome on Linux or OS X. The only thing I see MS with an advantage is games but that is all about shoving their proprietary Direct X down everyones throats and that is quickly changing too. OS X is on STEAM now and I hear there is talk of Ubuntu on STEAM.Not to mention that the tablet and phone games do not use the proprietary DX crap either.[/citation]

rofl. if Microsoft is bad then Apple is worst. oh wait, you are a moron who is so blindfolded and believe Apple actually "created" something?

Everything from Apple was a copied of something. warp it in a pretty box and sell for 200% extra. and morons like you will think "OMG THIS IS SO NEW"

get lost dumb-a$$

 

[johnsmithhatesVLC]

[citation][nom]alyon[/nom]I remember hearing about i4i or better known as "Eye for an Eye." Just a group that makes all of their business buying up patents and then suing companies who may infringe. I would much rather have Microsoft winning this instead of the people who represent what is so wrong with our copyright/patent system today. Idiots will look at this as a win.[/citation]
Are you retarded? Microsoft should have checked before infringing on any patents.

 

[beayn]

[citation][nom]guzz46[/nom]Funny, I just switched two of my flatmate's laptops over to linux as under windows 7 one was having limited wifi network connectivity problems and on the other one the network printer would randomly stop working, but both of them are now running great without any problems on linux.I do find it rather funny that M$ now wants a change in the patent system though, I guess they don't like it when they are on the receiving end.[/citation]

Funny, I just installed Ubuntu on one of my laptops and the wireless card didn't work at all, but it works fine in Windows.

People who claim an OS is better than another because X piece of hardware works or doesn't work are retards. You are one of those people. Someone other than Microsoft or Canonical wrote the wireless drivers for both OS's. How does that have any bearing on the quality of the actual OS?

 

[godmodder]

Someone other than Microsoft or Canonical wrote the wireless drivers for both OS's. How does that have any bearing on the quality of the actual OS?

Because if you can't use the drivers that actually work in your favourite OS, that makes it practically useless in the case of a wireless adapter.

 

[Maxor127]

[citation][nom]chick0n[/nom]rofl. if Microsoft is bad then Apple is worst. oh wait, you are a moron who is so blindfolded and believe Apple actually "created" something? Everything from Apple was a copied of something. warp it in a pretty box and sell for 200% extra. and morons like you will think "OMG THIS IS SO NEW" get lost dumb-a$$[/citation]
The blind hypocrisy of this is amusing.

 

[alyon]

[citation][nom]johnsmithhatesVLC[/nom]Are you retarded? Microsoft should have checked before infringing on any patents.[/citation]

You do know just how many vague tech patents are out there right? It would be almost impossible to create something without stepping on some toes. Many companies know this.

And it still doesn't void the fact that i4i is a group of lawyers. What do you think they are? A group of white knight software engineers?

 

[techman69]

If you're on the North American continent, patent law works, whether you agree with the verdict or not. Chinese companies blatantly copy the products made by US companies, down to the errors in the software (example, Linksys by Cisco routers, relentlessly copied). Then they ship those products to the US for a "lower price". No way to enforce patent protection, because one you sue one, the company just closes up shop, and starts doing business under a new name. As a result, US companies realize they can't beat them, then close US factories and eliminate jobs, and open up in China, then ship products to the US. Too bad that cycle cant last, because with no jobs, nobody will be able to buy their outsourced products. HP shipped 30,000 jobs overseas during Fiorina's tenure as CEO. That was her big accomplishment. No thanks. No more HP products for me.

 

[Burodsx]

Patent system really needs fixing as you can be extremely vague and sue multiple companies. "System for controlling air", congrats you just patented fans, exhaust systems, oxygen tanks, air conditioning, and wind...

 

[CoryInJapan]

I was shocked at the picture when I first seen it. I guess I would sweat that much if I just lost almost a few hundred million dollors from a company I represent lol. Geezzz.

 

[kanoobie]

Innovation -1
Epic Photo +1

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]johnsmithhatesVLC[/nom]Are you retarded? Microsoft should have checked before infringing on any patents.[/citation]

you have any idea how many pattents there are? i believe its in the 100million or close to the billion mark. and the ones in tech are mostly vague pieces of @#$@ so technically, hitting a key and having the signal transfered into characters, or having the screen rest on top or a tower, or having the tower stand up right, down to how many pixles an icon uses, are all patented.

everything tech wise it patented, at this point its all about deciding if the patents are worth violating and going to court over them, if they even know about the patents.

and in this case, what was patented was such a basic thing that no one thought that it would hold.

 

[davewolfgang]

The thing wrong with this is that if you have actual line of code - that you can copyright. But like the pull down menu thing. You "should" only be able to copyright YOUR code. But if your code does it in Basic, if someone else writes code in C++, you can't do anything about it.

But also the lame practice of sitting on "shaky idea" patents. If you can't do something with it within a year or two - that really shows you aren't really working on it. Even SOME progress - not just waiting until someone else makes the idea work so then you can sue them.

And for all you i4i backers - Canada, the COUNTRY their company is in - TURNED DOWN THEIR PATENT REQUEST because it was too vague.

 

[blackjellognomes]

[citation][nom]ikyunG[/nom]Oh man.. I thought that man's shirt was a design of spots till I realized it was sweat.. What is the point of making millions when one can't even take care of their health. GO EXERCISE.[/citation]I don't think you've been taking care of your health, because sweating is definitely healthy, bro.

 

[greenback]

[citation][nom]godmodder[/nom]Because if you can't use the drivers that actually work in your favourite OS, that makes it practically useless in the case of a wireless adapter.[/citation]


Well if the drivers are faulty then is that the OS or a bug by the person who coded it nvidia and amd have had bugs in thier drivers nothing to do with the OS. The argument over which OS is best is pointless as is the ones over Xbox and ps3 as each has thier good points and bad, So it come down to indvidual choice if you like something stick with it if you don't try the other it's called free will we as humans have that abillity

 

[beayn]

[citation][nom]godmodder[/nom]Because if you can't use the drivers that actually work in your favourite OS, that makes it practically useless in the case of a wireless adapter.[/citation]

If you buy crappy hardware, chances are you'll get crappy drivers. That has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the OS, nor does it make the OS useless. Buy a good part with good drivers and you'll be fine. Using some 3rd party's code to say the OS sucks is retarded and a clear excuse to bash something you don't like rather than judge it on its own merits.

 

[schmich]

[citation][nom]ReggieRay[/nom]DX crap either.[/citation]
DX is what took graphics forwards. OpenGL has been sitting on their arses and just copies DX now and then.

 

[ravewulf]

http://www.i4i.com/x4w.htm
Man are they asshats

Translated:
"Word docs are now going to lose some of your data because we wanted to troll Microsoft. Buy our product that fixes this problem we forced on Microsoft"

 

[guzz46]

Funny, I just installed Ubuntu on one of my laptops and the wireless card didn't work at all, but it works fine in Windows.

People who claim an OS is better than another because X piece of hardware works or doesn't work are retards. You are one of those people. Someone other than Microsoft or Canonical wrote the wireless drivers for both OS's. How does that have any bearing on the quality of the actual OS?

So I guess that makes you a retard as well then, seeing as you basically said the exact same thing as I did.

 

[eddieroolz]

Saw this an entire week ago on news, Tom's.

I like how ignorant commenters wanted Microsoft to win. This case was clear - the CEO of the small firm shared its patent with Microsoft and thought he'd be protected by the patent. But Microsoft went ahead and used it without contacting him for permission.

I fail to see how Microsoft should've won this one.