02.03.08
Software Patents Harm Phones, Again
Just over a week ago, a company somehow managed to patent the mobile computer. This ought to be one of the more prominent illustrations of the bad state of the USPTO. In recent days, it was also reported that Skype got sued by a lesser-known company.
Net2Phone, the pioneering Internet phone company that was destined to become a subsidiary of IDT despite objectons from some shareholders, seemingly has figured out a way to strike back against their enduring irrelevance.
Now, they’re taking Skype to court for patent infringement.
More on this in Techdirt. Meanwhile, Symbian, whose main backer loves software patents, got itself another patent.
A bit of a curiosity this one. If you go to Gauss, you can view the patent for the Symbian OS. As far as I can tell, the premise is that EPOC provides an efficient way of storing strings that, in turn, allows the OS to be created in c++ rather than c.
If you no longer recall this, see an explanation of how Nokia harmed Google’s Android with its Trolltech acquisition. It is also worth pointing out this older article from DigiTimes that attributed Android’s delays to patent issues.
TI’s handset chipsets will find their way into the Google phone should the company decide to roll out an EDGE-compliant handset, but Qualcomm could turn out to be the winner if Google decides to bet on a 3G model, the sources noted.
Some of tomorrow’s more important computers will be mobile device. The field is becoming a legal land mine which hinders development. █
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.