Lan Barnes wrote:
On Sat, October 13, 2007 11:10 am, Bob La Quey wrote:
Companies called IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corporation
sued Red Hat and Novell on Tuesday, claiming the top Linux sellers'
software products infringe U.S. patent 5,072,412, "User interface with
multiple workspaces for sharing display system objects," and two
identically named patents.
http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9796868-39.html?tag=nefd.blgs
BobLQ
Between prior art and the bloody obvious, I can't see even the present
corporatist courts upholding this.
How do patents like that get approved? Nemind, I know :-(
The Groklaw article
(http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071011205044141) shows that
two Microsoft executives, Jonathan Taub (former Microsoft Director of
Strategic Alliances for the Mobile and Embedded Devices) and Brad
Brunell (held a number of management positions at Microsoft, including
General Manager, Intellectual Property Licensing) were "hired" by IP
Innovation. Taub was hired as President, Brunell as Senior Vice President.
This looks to be a thinly disguised proxy attack by M$ with the purpose
of killing Linux vendors by death of a thousand cuts. M$ can attack
Linux distributors and users by leveraging minor patents which are not
owned by M$ itself. If such patents are found to be infringed during the
battles, Microsoft can merely pay (or already are paying - or have an
"Understanding" with the proxy attacker) to license their own use. If
they're thrown out, everyone, including M$ gain.
But Redhat and Novell (and others further down the road) lose for having
to defend against such patent claims, legitimate or not. There's also an
advantage to fighting patent wars by proxy using a Holding Company: the
attacker can't be counter-attacked with counter suits claiming use of
the defenders' patents, because the attacker produces no products or
services. This assures that big patent holders like IBM are of little to
no use as allies.
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
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