Microsoft (probably) won't sue ANYONE for infringing 'IP'
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| Author | Content |
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| schestowitz Dec 24, 2006 1:32 AM EDT |
Opening the Pandora Box? I suspect not... IBM and others would rip them. Microsoft's Undisclosed Balance-sheet Liability NT influenced by Unix ,----[ Quote ] | (Gates:) "And through Windows NT, you can see it throughout the design. | In a weak sense, it is a form of Unix. There are so many of the | design decisions that have been influenced by that environment. And | that's no accident." | | In light of the recent saber rattling about Linux and patents, the "There | are so many of the design decisions that have been influenced by that | environment" sentence is particularly interesting if these patent | threats include things that are prior Unix art. "In a weak sense, it | is a form of Unix" is also telling. I said before that I don't think | that's the case; I think the patent stuff is talking about things like | Samba and Mono, but even there the "influenced by that environment" | could be important in the court of public opinion if not in actual | law. `---- http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/gates_quote.html Microsoft's stolen code and IP infringements ,----[ Quote ] | Soon, MS-DOS 6.0 was released, including the Microsoft DoubleSpace | disk compression utility program. Stac successfully sued Microsoft | for patent infringement regarding the compression algorithm | used in DoubleSpace... | | F. Scott Deaver, owner of Failsafe Designs, says Microsoft is guilty of | the "outright theft" of his product name and intellectual property | (IP)... | | Alacritech sued Microsoft in Federal District Court on August 11, | 2004, alleging that Microsoft's existing and future operating | systems containing the "Chimney" TCP offload architecture uses | Alacritech's proprietary SLIC Technology architecture... | | In April 2001, Intertrust initiated a lawsuit against Microsoft. The | lawsuit ultimately accused Microsoft of infringing 11 of Intertrust's | patents and almost 130 of the company's patent claims... | | Visto Corporation has filed a legal action against Microsoft for | misappropriating Visto's intellectual property... "Microsoft has a | long and well-documented history of acquiring the technology of | others, branding it as their own, and entering new markets," said | Mr. Bogosian... | | Telecoms company AT&T accused Microsoft of infringing its patent for | a digital speech coder in its Window software in a lawsuit it filed | in 2000... | | The likelihood of Microsoft having to pay millions of dollars in | damages for infringing the contested Eolas patent for web browser | technology increased last week when the US Patent and Trademark | Office reaffirmed the patent's validity... | | A bitter fight has broken out between Symantec and Microsoft. | Symantec claims that Microsoft stole code from Veritas software... `---- http://www.openaddict.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic... Is Microsoft infringing upon Xerox, Apple and Unix intellectual property? ,----[ Quote ] | Intellectual Property is a term widely abused in the software industry | by firms such as Microsoft and SCO using it to scare people into not | using certain products in favor of their own. This disparaging tactic | has even been given a name: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD). It seemst | hat anyone nowadays can make bold, unsubstantiated claims of IP | infringement without actually having any proof simply to hurt another | products reputation and destroy healthy competition. In this article, | we will explore what intellectual property is and why every computeru | ser should care when unreputable companies abuse legal systems in | order to gain an unfair business advantage. `---- http://www.openaddict.com/page.php?27 The Apple vs. Microsoft GUI Lawsuit ,----[ Quote ] | Without warning, Apple filed suit against Microsoft in federal court on | March 17, 1988 for violating Apple's copyrights on the "visual displays" | of the Macintosh. (Apple also filed suit against HP for its NewWave | environment that ran on top of Windows 2.0.) | | Apple's suit included 189 contested visual displays that Apple | believed violated its copyright. | | Microsoft countersued, but it failed to stem the bad publicity. | Windows' development community was terrified that any court ordered | changes to the software would render their products incompatiblea | nd make Windows undesirable to consumers. Borland's CEO said itw | as like "waking up and finding out that your partner might have | AIDS." `---- http://lowendmac.com/orchard/06/0825.html Windows Vista vs. Mac OS X: The Copycat Olympics ,----[ Quote ] | In Microsoft's defense, though, why wouldn't you want to "borrow" ideas | from other successful products? Vista, Leopard, and Linux are all | competing against each other, although in reality, each one is better for | a different set of users. Apple may go on and on about the similarities | between Tiger and Vista, but they're there for a reason. When | innovation fails, then you need to try and learn from the best, and | that's what Microsoft is doing. However, they're a little late to the | game, and the competing follow-up usually isn't as good as the original. `---- http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=vi... All the Myth about Microsoft! ,----[ Quote ] | * Microsoft was first with graphical user interface | | * Microsoft designed BASIC Language | | * Microsoft designed visual basic | | * Microsoft invented DOS | | * Microsoft designed the first spreadsheet - Excel | | * Microsoft designed the first word processor | | * First with Internet browser `---- http://196.2.70.231:8080/ict_blog/open-ict-hacks/microsoft-m... |
| hkwint Dec 24, 2006 3:26 AM EDT |
Thanks, those are useful links. |
| pclessgeek Dec 24, 2006 11:37 AM EDT |
A very impressive collection of information and links. Thank you very much schestowitz for taking your time to put this together.
I would like to request/suggest that this very informative comment should be elevated to an article of it's own right. Anyone else agree with this? |
| kozmcrae Dec 24, 2006 1:45 PM EDT |
Thanks for putting this together. I found that the two OSweekly links came up 404. Richard |
| hkwint Dec 24, 2006 4:41 PM EDT |
Quoting:Anyone else agree with this? I do. However, it might take some time, but usual, I'm in for this kind of stories. |
| schestowitz Dec 24, 2006 11:52 PM EDT |
I can provide a few more such links. Contact me if you need it.. r [at] schestowitz [dot] com Merry Christmas, Roy |
| swbrown Dec 25, 2006 1:26 AM EDT |
Most of Microsoft's best technologies are not Microsoft's. RDP comes to mind (which has enviable performance), which was created by Citrix. That still is no license to knowingly violate /valid/ IP though. E.g., w32codecs. |
| schestowitz Dec 25, 2006 3:37 AM EDT |
IIRC, Microsoft tried to acquire Citrix, but antitrust prevented this... |
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