07.11.07
Companies Choose a Patent Peace After Storm, Microsoft Patents Up for ‘Trashing’ (Updated)
Here is a pleasant sight. Several companies previously decided to battle in court. They wrestled over some silly ‘intellectual property’ and have finally realised that there are better things to do. Actions such as threats are perceived as harassment or bullying, so they went the other way.
Peace breaks out in mobile patent wars
Ericsson/Samsung, Visto/Seven settle differences
Also in the news, remember Peer to Patent? After it was announced and also introduced in a variety of Web sites, Ars Technica ushers the arrival of some patent candidates. Unsurprisingly, the Groklaw community already gives patent applications some beating.
A system for selling media clips in an offline economy. Catchy. Well, Microsoft always did grok the Internet. Snark.
At last! The iTunes killer. I surely hope you guys can deep six this one with prior art. Although, I must admit I find it appealing to think of a world where Microsoft and Hollywood hopped off the Internet and played in their own separate offline playground.
It is rather amusing to see what companies perceive an patentable ideas nowadays. Perhaps they have run out of ideas or perhaps they no longer bother to check a pile of millions of patents, let alone do research on prior art. They only want to enumerate and grow some portfolio, never mind its quality.
Update: an important press release has just come from IBM.
IBM Pledges Free Access to Patents Involved in Implementing 150+ Software Standards
IBM today announced that it is granting universal and perpetual access to certain intellectual property that might be necessary to implement more than 150 standards designed to make software interoperable.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.