Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

zdnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 133 posts

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#121

Post by acqq »

andrewflnr wrote: post #103
cwyers wrote: post #97

I am pretty sure the title of this submission is against the site guidelines; it's not the title of the article submitted and the article's title is perfectly explanatory.

The submitted title may not be much better, but the original is pure clickbait. It starts off with "The one thing...", and makes you click through to find out.

The current (written by the poster) HN title of this article claims that the MSFT patents are "bogus" which is surely not true.

Samsung has enough money to challenge them, but they know they would fail, the patents are valid, as long as the US law supports the software patents in the current form.

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#122

Post by cLeEOGPw »

annnnd wrote: post #117
kazuyan wrote: post #115

"So why, with all this, are many open-source fans and developers certain that Microsoft can't be trusted?" Source?

Let's vote: +1. MS doesn't stand a chance when it comes to me (and I imagine others) trusting them. Too much BS for too many years.

I am always saying windows is better OS for desktop users than linux, and I would never trust MS. Why would open source people trust MS is beyond imagination.

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#123

Post by lagadu »

tluyben2 wrote: post #108
lagadu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The group of people that still hates Microsoft by and large will always hate them until they die. Even if they opened up the patents they'd still be hated for "being evil". There's next to nothing to gain from doing and there's billions to lose.

Nah, people were giving them another chance already. I for one don't 'hate' them, I find Windows (and Outlook and let's not talk about Sharepoint) not a good product and thus not worth the money and with them 'being evil', I did not really understand why anyone would use it. With all the open source and other good strategy decisions by Nadella I was changing my opinion some what. It seems they should take that all th…

> I find Windows (and Outlook and let's not talk about Sharepoint) not a good product and thus not worth the money

This is exactly what I mean. Them opening up the patents wouldn't change your bias against their products (justified or otherwise isn't relevant) like you just described, making it a business decision with very, very limited gains and billions in losses.

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#124

Post by scholia »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #70
scholia wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That won't fly without access to Google's proprietary apps and app store. Microsoft will need to bury this hatchet before they could get that licensing deal. Microsoft could use AOSP or Cyanogen. But is there any known case where Google has blocked a would-be Android phone maker? And if it blocked Microsoft, how would that stand up to DoJ scrutiny?

It doesn't really matter. If you don't have Google services and the Play store your Android based phone is destined to fail.

Have you looked at the market in China?

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#125

Post by scholia »

Zigurd wrote: post #91
scholia wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That won't fly without access to Google's proprietary apps and app store. Microsoft will need to bury this hatchet before they could get that licensing deal. Microsoft could use AOSP or Cyanogen. But is there any known case where Google has blocked a would-be Android phone maker? And if it blocked Microsoft, how would that stand up to DoJ scrutiny?

Google cannot block anyone from using AOSP. But Google declines to enter into Google logo agreements all the time for all kinds of reasons that they often do not explain. While you can self test your device for compatibility, that's no guarantee you'll get an agreement with Google.

Thanks for the info. It would be interesting to see Google turn Microsoft down, but I don't expect it will get the chance. Windows 10 works very well on phones....

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#126

Post by ocdtrekkie »

low_battery wrote: post #89
dogma1138 wrote: post #3

I can't seem to understand if MSFT patents actually apply to the Android OS / AOSP or just to various firmware, middleware and software that OEM's use on their devices regardless of the OS in question. The AOSP license and 3rd party notifications do not mention Microsoft and the patents listed in Chinese doc are like vague in the usual patent-esque way. But in any case i don't really see the issue here, if MSFT gets…

Really? Is Google actively shaking up tens of companies with secret patents and threats?

It's kinda hard to prove because of the confidentiality Google uses in it's agreements with partners, but Samsung was making every indication that they would fork Android, prepping alternatives to all of Google's apps. Then, they reversed course in 2014, they signed a patent agreement with Google and started 'toning down TouchWiz'. These stories were two days apart.

Why would Samsung do this if Google wasn't leveraging it's patent portfolio?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/27/samgsung-googl...

http://androidandme.com/2014/01/news/samsung-may-be-toning-d...

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#127

Post by justinclift »

Karunamon wrote: post #116
lagadu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The group of people that still hates Microsoft by and large will always hate them until they die. Even if they opened up the patents they'd still be hated for "being evil". There's next to nothing to gain from doing and there's billions to lose.

Can you really blame them? Microsoft's bad behavior and damage to the computing industry from their documented monopolistic, anticompetitive practices had consequences that are still felt today. They're clearly trying to change their ways, but every now and then (i.e. patent crap) some of the old regime shines through. It shows that the internal mentality hasn't changed as much as they like to put on.

If they were trying to change their ways, explain forcing Win 10 down everyone's throats except those who actively opt-out via registry setting.

They need to walk the walk, which they're not doing. :(

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#128

Post by abiox »

lagadu wrote: post #123
tluyben2 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, people were giving them another chance already. I for one don't 'hate' them, I find Windows (and Outlook and let's not talk about Sharepoint) not a good product and thus not worth the money and with them 'being evil', I did not really understand why anyone would use it. With all the open source and other good strategy decisions by Nadella I was changing my opinion some what. It seems they should take that all th…

> I find Windows (and Outlook and let's not talk about Sharepoint) not a good product and thus not worth the money This is exactly what I mean. Them opening up the patents wouldn't change your bias against their products (justified or otherwise isn't relevant) like you just described, making it a business decision with very, very limited gains and billions in losses.

you seem to say that windows is objectively good and worth the money, irrespective of their circumstance. otherwise, what could "wouldn't change your bias" mean?

Re: Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents

#130

Post by rasz_pl »

tremon wrote: post #120
jacquesm wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I have a slide-to-unlock device on my front door that fits that specification exactly, the only difference is that it is not 'on a computer'. It's a ridiculous patent.

Yeah, but it doesn't come with a help text explaining to the user what to do.

actually it does, right on the box it came in
Post reply on HN