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Microsoft Targets Motorola in Patent Lawsuit Over Android

KnightWRX said:
Wait, so all those patent lawsuits against Apple means they are cheating too ? :rolleyes:

More proof that Google has the industry running scared of the green little robot.
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This green little robot has a good run but it is not a placenta for all those that just want to run a million unit line and never invest in software development. If anything, it is a crutch for the old consumer electronics model that had little programmable functionality. It will be good for those that like being cheap and dramatizing their IT problems. The rest of us will be productive and make lots of money.
 
jaykk said:
I think this is very much related to apple/mac/iphone echo system. Glad that I belong to apple echo system than microsoft or google system.
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Hello, Hello, Hello
It's not really an eco system, that is just a boring overused cliche.

And it is especially not an echo system

and updates don't 'weigh in' either
 
I see this as a PR tactic by MS to get some more attention before their new Phone OS launches. As we all know, this is going to be a non-event. Wake me up when it's over.
 
WeegieMac said:
If I see one of their ****** little camera vans come down my street again, it's getting caught at the next red light. It angers me no end that these arseholes think they can record MY home without my permission and post it on the internet for everyone to see.
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You live in an age of Surveillance Media. deal with it or move to some obscure third world country.
 
Over at Arstechnica they actually list the patent violations - it will be interesting to see whether Microsoft offered Motorola a patent agreement before this coming out as an official court case - I'd put money on it that Microsoft offered them something and Motorola thought they could take it to court and win.

Btw, these aren't BS patents, they're actually real patents that have actually been upheld when push came to shove; Tomtom being the best example recently of the FAT32 patent.

Btw, Apple has licensed technology off Microsoft, exFAT being the recent example probably for a cool $300,000 - so such arrangements happen all the time but the difference is Motorola thought they could get a free ride.
 
Earendil said:
It's relevant in the respect that, as the public portion of the claim is written, looks as if Apple is also in violation. I wonder why Microsoft is only targeting Motorola...
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Because Microsoft and Apple have a cross-license agreement regarding their respective patent portfolios.
 
The article said:
"Initially, the carrier will offer three handsets—one each made by Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., and HTC Corp.—as it looks to diversify its portfolio of mobile devices beyond the iPhone. "

I don't know what the AT&T is like where author Roger Cheng lives, but where I live AT&T offers handsets from everyone and everything. You can get ultra cheap phones all the way up to expensive smartphones deluxe. Granted you can't get every single possible handset at AT&T, but you can get all the best of the brand there.
 
Popeye206 said:
I see this as a PR tactic by MS to get some more attention before their new Phone OS launches. As we all know, this is going to be a non-event. Wake me up when it's over.
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I wonder if Screamin' Stevie B. is going to have MS organize "launch parties" like the Windows7 embarrassment last year. That was great entertainment.
 
Good for Microsoft, Oracle and Apple. Microsoft via its lawsuit against Motorola, and Apple via its lawsuit against HTC, are taking on the handset manufacturers. Oracle via its lawsuit against Google, is taking on Android OS. Between these three lawsuits, I hope Android dies an agonizing death. I don't wish this because I dislike competition. However, it's plainly obvious that Eric Schmidt stole a lot of Apple's ideas while he was privy to those plans as a member of their board of directors. That's just not cool. Anyone can be a runaway success simply by copying the ideas which made others successful, but ultimately you are a lazy coward.
 
AZREOSpecialist said:
Good for Microsoft, Oracle and Apple. Microsoft via its lawsuit against Motorola, and Apple via its lawsuit against HTC, are taking on the handset manufacturers. Oracle via its lawsuit against Google, is taking on Android OS. Between these three lawsuits, I hope Android dies an agonizing death. I don't wish this because I dislike competition. However, it's plainly obvious that Eric Schmidt stole a lot of Apple's ideas while he was privy to those plans as a member of their board of directors. That's just not cool. Anyone can be a runaway success simply by copying the ideas which made others successful, but ultimately you are a lazy coward.
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Unless you work for the companies or own lots of stock in the companies, who cares who's suing who. Let the courts decide and the lawyers get richer :).
 
macintoshtoffy said:
Over at Arstechnica they actually list the patent violations - it will be interesting to see whether Microsoft offered Motorola a patent agreement before this coming out as an official court case - I'd put money on it that Microsoft offered them something and Motorola thought they could take it to court and win.

Btw, these aren't BS patents, they're actually real patents that have actually been upheld when push came to shove; Tomtom being the best example recently of the FAT32 patent.

Btw, Apple has licensed technology off Microsoft, exFAT being the recent example probably for a cool $300,000 - so such arrangements happen all the time but the difference is Motorola thought they could get a free ride.
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I imagine that Motorola thought that Google should be the one to pay for any licensing needed for the Android operating system.
 
MorphingDragon said:
You live in an age of Surveillance Media. deal with it or move to some obscure third world country.
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And that kind of attitude is exactly why these companies will garner more and more information about us unopposed.

It has to stop somewhere, "Surveillance Media" or not.

If I walked up to your home, walked into your front garden, and proceeded to take photographs of your home so "I could find my way back home because I've never been here before", you'd be entitled to toe my nuts and send me on my way.
 
WeegieMac said:
If I walked up to your home, walked into your front garden, and proceeded to take photographs of your home so "I could find my way back home because I've never been here before", you'd be entitled to toe my nuts and send me on my way.
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Google does not walk into your front garden, they do it from the street. You have no expectation of privacy when you expose something to public view, this includes the front of your house.

If you don't want pictures of your house taken from the street ever, I suggest you move it down farther inside your lot and plan mature trees to hide it.
 
Full of Win said:
:rolleyes: sounds good at first, but that is a terrible idea

Software code is as much art as a painting is. Those that take the time to generate it should have their work protected for a limited amount of time so they may enjoy the benefits of their work.
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As far as I know (being in the art/graphic business for 30 years) paintings, fashion or design in general is NOT patented, copyrighted yes, but a patent is a completely different level of protection for ideas. According to Wikipedia "a patent provides the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for the term of the patent, which is usually 20 years from the filing date" It wouldn't be practical for one artist to exclude another from painting, not to mention even realistic. In the area of copyrights, all that another artist needs to do is change a design by 15%. Artists and designers copy each other all of the time but they make need to make enough changes for the art to be considered original, if they don't they can get charged with copyright infringement. In California, I believe that software is automatically copyrighted as are all works of art (my NOLO book what deals just with software is some where around here...)

Millah said:
Are you kidding me? You being on an Apple forum, I would expect you to at least have a bigger understanding and appreciation for "design." Software, code, houses, or clothes don't design themselves, and the people who do should get what theyre due for their work.
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See above, yes people should get their due, but patents are very restrictive and actually damage the ability of others to innovate, especially if someone takes out a patent and doesn't do anything with it.

A friend of mine invented a unique interface between a turntable and computer. He filed and got a patent for it. After producing the product for several years and contracted by a big company who massed produced his product, he was sued by some obscure person out of the country. And even though this person had never produced a working version of the product patented, and even though there were holes in the timeline and the claim was disputable, the big company settled in court to pay a huge fee to this obscure person. This was mainly because the judge of the case really didn't know patent law well enough to know how many things were wrong with the case and that it should have not been brought to court. Because of this it looked like the judge would rule in favor of the obscure person. So the big company just went with a settlement that my friend was responsible for a large part of! That is just wrong. My friend did all of the actual work to bring the invention to fruition. However there is a twist... Another company in Australia was working with the same type of invention, and this obscure person was then targeting them (as if a couple million wasn't enough already, see these patent cases are a lot about greed) So my friend contacted them and told them what evidence he had that would have thrown his case out if only the judge would have listened and understood what it meant. The Australian company paid him a substantial amount of money for the evidence. That evidence would save them from paying out millions, and my friend was able to offset the settlement he had to pay out. It worked out but the obscure person who did nothing but sue for an invention that they never fully completed was making a ton of money suing everyone through out the world for that "patent." That is insane, and that is what needs to change in regards to patents!!
 
Too right

From the discussions and from the Microsoft press release I get the following...

Smart phones are increasingly becoming like a desktop computer in terms of file storage, UI, memory handling etc...

What Microsoft is saying is that over the last 20+ years they have designed and patented ways of handling OS software tasks that are now being used by mobile OS's. If thats the fact then they have the right to sue, the 20+ years of development and investment by the industry doesnt just get wiped out by Google deciding to release an OS.

You have to release that everything that makes a computer easy to use was at somepoint invented and the inventor deserves credit. Microsoft cant be considered a troll because they invented some of these advancements and have licenced them before.
 
SockRolid said:
Microsoft is suing over patents. But Oracle is suing for a clear-cut Java license agreement violation. Google uses the non-compliant Dalvik VM, the Java license requires 100% compliance, therefore Google is in violation.

Ironic that Microsoft paid Sun $20 million for a similar violation. Unfortunate for Google that Oracle (who now owns Sun and Java along with it) doesn't give a crap about money. Larry Ellison wants blood, and he's going to get it. No way for Google to buy their way out of this one.
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I don't think you could be any more wrong on several counts here:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20100815110101756

Oracle have brought 8 claims: 7 on patents, 1 on copyright.

As for Oracle 'not giving a crap about money'... Do you know anything about Oracle? It is about money, and lots of it.

James Gosling, the creator of Java, thinks it's ONLY about money. Also, the MS payment to Sun was definitely not $20 million. I believe it was closer to $800 million, with on-going payments to cover .NET patent violations.

http://www.basementcoders.com/transcripts/James_Gosling_Transcript.html

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Applicatio...Lawsuit-All-About-Ego-Money-and-Power-278678/
 
AidenShaw said:
Which - of course - is simple, fast, and almost painless.

The phone is synched with Exchange and/or your PC. A "master reset" means restoring your background bitmap, and downloading the rest from the master. Anything on the SDHC card is preserved - so the reset doesn't affect the music library, photos, etc.

Pure FUD, Mr. Hiker.
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That's not FUD, that's a pain in the ass.
 
swagi said:
Exactly. Poor reading comprehension. And how do you change the assigned iTMS account on your iPhone again?

Hace you ever switched iPhones? If so, have you experienced the Battery life disaster? I did on a 3GS and yes, I had to fully reset the phone.
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That's not even remotely similar. I don't know what the complaint with iTunes is.

Download XTorrent, stop by BTJunkie, and download just about anything you like. Then drag it to iTunes and iTunes treats it exactly like music, tv, or movies that you've downloaded as if you'd bought it from the iTunes store.

The Windows phone will more than likely have the Zune software with the same restrictions, so I don't see how this makes Apple bad. In fact, all phone companies do basically the same thing when it comes to that kind of content.

The windows phone is the only phone that attempts to lock you into an external email account. To the point where you need to take time out of your day to master reset your phone and restore everything that was on it simply to sign out of an email account.

It's classic Microsoft putting themselves ahead of their customers interests.
 
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