Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
blogs.forbes.com
Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#2I wonder if Microsoft has employees working on trivial things they can patent, so they can go after other companies with similar technology after that.
Is it possible to build something without infringing on some patent anymore? (even if nobody is suing you)
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#3I wonder if Microsoft has employees working on trivial things they can patent, so they can go after other companies with similar technology after that. Is it possible to build something without infringing on some patent anymore? (even if nobody is suing you)
I bet that's one of the reasons why Microsoft Research exists.
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#4I wonder if Microsoft has employees working on trivial things they can patent, so they can go after other companies with similar technology after that. Is it possible to build something without infringing on some patent anymore? (even if nobody is suing you)
I bet that's one of the reasons why Microsoft Research exists.
Well its founder did leave Microsoft specifically to found a company that does nothing but patent trolling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures). Given the number of actual products that have come out of Microsoft Research (One the last time I counted) I'd say patenting things is its primary goal at this point
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#5"So Android, like every large software product on the planet, infringes numerous Microsoft patents." while that might be true you can't tell until there is a lawsuit. Right now Microsoft is claiming this but no one wants to bet the other way.
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#6After Nortel's patent auction earlier this week, I expect Apple to get in on that game to.
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bet that's one of the reasons why Microsoft Research exists.
Well its founder did leave Microsoft specifically to found a company that does nothing but patent trolling ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures ). Given the number of actual products that have come out of Microsoft Research (One the last time I counted) I'd say patenting things is its primary goal at this point
I'm sure that wasn't the original intent. But given that they have failed generally at commercializing their innovations, patent lawsuits are a good backup strategy and probably gives Microsoft's patent lawyers a good justification for their continued existance.
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bet that's one of the reasons why Microsoft Research exists.
Well its founder did leave Microsoft specifically to found a company that does nothing but patent trolling ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures ). Given the number of actual products that have come out of Microsoft Research (One the last time I counted) I'd say patenting things is its primary goal at this point
Plenty of MSR stuff has ended up in the hands of other groups and ended up in shipped projects. Just look at Wikipedia: their C# research (Polyphonic C# became Cw became Joins Concurrency), F#, Seadragon, Accelerator (pretty cool, BTW), freaking ClearType... the list isn't exactly short. Surface aside, they haven't produced commercialized products, but that's not the point.
Come on. This stuff is easy. Why the content-free troll?
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#9"So Android, like every large software product on the planet, infringes numerous Microsoft patents." while that might be true you can't tell until there is a lawsuit. Right now Microsoft is claiming this but no one wants to bet the other way.
One of the things Microsoft has done well is to pick the right pricing plan and the right industry. By making it a per unit fee on Smartphones you make it easy for manufacturers to pass the cost on to the consumer who then subsidizes it through a contract with their provider.
The $5 per unit HTC pays Microsoft is only $.20 a month when passed directly on to the consumer and spread out over 2 years.
Re: Microsoft’s Android Shakedown
#10I wonder if Microsoft has employees working on trivial things they can patent, so they can go after other companies with similar technology after that. Is it possible to build something without infringing on some patent anymore? (even if nobody is suing you)
I wonder if Microsoft has employees working on
trivial things they can patent
(1) all engineers are encouraged to look for things to patent, while being actively discouraged to taint themselves by looking at other patents
(2) when an engineer thinks he has something patentable, he sends the description in his own words to a patent attorney that also knows engineering -- it's his job to translate the engineer's description into legalese.
(3) the internal patents office of the company examines the proposal, looking for prior art and declares it good to go, or sends it back to the drawing board.
(4) profit -- after a proposal is good to go, the engineer gets money, even though that patent request hasn't been approved yet by USPTO.
Now, the monetary reward isn't that high usually - it amounts to something like 1 or 2 salaries where I live, or something like that - but if you keep churning proposals, you can basically double your monthly revenue.