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Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

businessinsider.com

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Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#51

Post by tzs »

tsycho wrote: post #5

If these numbers are accurate, then yuck!!! My disgust for software patents just went up even further. More seriously, I have a question for those who know more about this... 1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? 2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how does…

> If the answer to #1 is yes, how does Apple avoid this problem?

For at least what is problem the main money maker for Microsoft's patent licensing, the patent or patents covering aspects of the FAT32 filesystem, Apple escapes liability because Apple does not use FAT32 in iOS. Android does use it (for removable media).

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#52

Post by Maascamp »

Why is everyone taking these numbers as fact when neither the article nor analyst offer anything to back up these claims?

The people submitting and upvoting stories like this are just as responsible for the shoddy state of tech journalism as these bloggers are.

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#53

Post by pmjordan »

runn1ng wrote: post #33
rayiner wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft and Sony have lost $3-5bn on the PS3/XBox 360-generation of consoles.

Why do they keep doing something that costs them so much?

Sony won the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD war with the PS3. That may have been worth it.

Microsoft want to wrest control over your living room from the established consumer electronics companies (such as Sony...), much like Apple and Amazon.

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#54

Post by thetrb »

VladRussian2 wrote: post #13
tsycho wrote: post #5

If these numbers are accurate, then yuck!!! My disgust for software patents just went up even further. More seriously, I have a question for those who know more about this... 1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? 2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how does…

>1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? no alternative implementation would help as it is not about some specific patents, it is more about [litigation] threat that some patents in the vast portfolio can be found that may be in some sense considered vio…

Do they also get money from Motorola?

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#55

Post by shmerl »

tzs wrote: post #48
shmerl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS attempts to do everything possible to hide what patents they use for protection racket. Most probably because those patents are garbage and can be otherwise invalidated. Barnes and Noble almost got to that point, but MS quickly bribed them to prevent that from happening. Unfortunately, besides B&N no one had the guts to fight these racketeers.

You are a bit confused. When Microsoft sued Barnes and Noble, the patents they were suing over were disclosed in their public court filings. Over a dozen were identified [1]. [1] http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/070611-microsoft-andro...

So they did disclose them? No doubt under pressure from B&N. If you look at those patents, you'll see that they are bizarrely trivial. Such things should never be patentable in the first place. Surely invalidating them can be not so easy, but it can be possible. It's one of the reasons why MS attempts to push NDAs as much as possible (we are lucky this was disclosed in those cases). Probably only a minority of their patents are non trivial, and most of these racket attacks are based on these kind of junk patents.

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#56

Post by belorn »

VladRussian2 wrote: post #13
tsycho wrote: post #5

If these numbers are accurate, then yuck!!! My disgust for software patents just went up even further. More seriously, I have a question for those who know more about this... 1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? 2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how does…

>1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? no alternative implementation would help as it is not about some specific patents, it is more about [litigation] threat that some patents in the vast portfolio can be found that may be in some sense considered vio…

Microsoft used the same method back with SCO. Eben Moglen called it "the be very afraid tour" back in 2007.

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#57

Post by rbanffy »

sker wrote: post #40

I always thought HTC and Samsung were exempt from these royalties by releasing their own Windows Phones. That's why Samsung doesn't care at all about their WP offerings. Samsung, HTC, Apple and Nokia should account for over 50% of the global market. If my assumptions are correct, are the rest of the smaller players able to pay that much money on royalties alone? I'll like to see some numbers. The article is seriously…

There are all sorts of creative accounting maneuvers that can be done in order to hide the amount exchanging hands for various purposes. They can be exempt and still pay and then to be reimbursed (or receiving a heavy discount somewhere else they buy Microsoft licenses. Samsung buys a lot of Windows licenses for their PC business.

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#58

Post by rbanffy »

leeoniya wrote: post #17

does anyone know which patents they're asserting? FAT?

Barnes and Noble tried to make the list public. They got, IIRC, a billion dollars and a "partnership" (mostly the money) in exchange for shutting up.

AFAIK, the list is still secret.

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#59

Post by bostonpete »

VladRussian2 wrote: post #13
tsycho wrote: post #5

If these numbers are accurate, then yuck!!! My disgust for software patents just went up even further. More seriously, I have a question for those who know more about this... 1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? 2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how does…

>1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? no alternative implementation would help as it is not about some specific patents, it is more about [litigation] threat that some patents in the vast portfolio can be found that may be in some sense considered vio…

> What interesting here is that Google seems to > leave its OEMs to fend for themselves

This might have been a valid criticism a couple of years ago but at the moment I believe Google is defending claims by Microsoft against Motorola claiming that Android device makers don't need third-party patent licenses. So it certainly seems like they're doing their fair share to stand up to MS -- more than any other OEM (it's not like Samsung is some mom and pop shop that couldn't put up a fight).

Re: Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

#60

Post by VladRussian2 »

thetrb wrote: post #54
VladRussian2 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>1. Are these generic, broad "idea" patents and hence there is nothing Google/OEMs can really do here to avoid licensing them? If not, why don't they use an alternative implementation to avoid the conflict? no alternative implementation would help as it is not about some specific patents, it is more about [litigation] threat that some patents in the vast portfolio can be found that may be in some sense considered vio…

Do they also get money from Motorola?

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/just-like-one-week-ago-wh...

"Google's Motorola Mobility, which prefers litigation even though it's a grossly unsuccessful strategy for Google "

and

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/setback-for-google-german...

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