10.17.07
Junks Patents Du Jour: Microsoft and Amazon Are Sure Winners
Want to see some funny patents? Here’s your chance. Looking at just a couple of examples you’ll find that Microsoft is now allegedly patenting the Apple iPod.
Pictured here is Microsoft’s great new patent application on a portable touchscreen device’s user interface, refiled within days of a certain cellphone going on sale. Look familiar?
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Either that, or they’re jokes.
Remember the patent on hard-drive-based media players (a la iPod) and the dispute that ensued? This seems like another case of history repeating itself, but this one is still in the making.
Additionally, who could ever forget Amazon’s notorious 1-click shopping patent, which is apparently having the last screws violently nailed into its coffin?
Most of the claims in Amazon’s controversial patent for shopping with a single mouse click have been rejected by the US Patent Office. It follows a campaign by a New Zealander who filed evidence of prior art with funding from readers of his blog.
Yes, that is the sad state of the patent system. It pays more to just accept patent applications. Any applications. As the following very recent article explains, the consequences have a chaotic nature.
It costs millions of dollars in litigation fees to show that a patent should not have been granted, and most big corporations have learned that the hard way.
It truly seems like a shoot-first-then-ask-questions situation.
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.