__/ [ 7 ] on Saturday 09 June 2007 09:58 \__
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> [Mark Shuttleworth Interview]
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won't
>> | say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: "It's an
>> | unsafe neighbourhood, why don't you pay me 20 bucks and I'll make
>> | sure you're okay," that's illegal. It's racketeering. What Microsoft
>> | is doing with intellectual property is exactly the same. It's a great
>> | company and I have great admiration for it, but this was not a
>> | well considered position.
>
>
> It suggests there should a strong law against IP racketeering.
> It would be illegal to sign any deals under contract law without
> specifying specific IP protection or none at all.
> That way companies and investors are protected from non-specificity
> of any deals they sign.
See:
Timeline: Court rules Microsoft patent deal can't be terminated
,----[ Quote ]
| Timeline Inc. said a U.S court has ruled that the company's patent
| agreement with Microsoft Corp. cannot be terminated, and that
| Timeline's remedy for any alleged breaches would be to seek damages.
`----
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20070604:MTFH22685_2007-06-04_10-54-25_WNAS3019&type=comktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/2xb83a
Last week there was also a story (I can't find the reference quickly where a
company expressed great angry because it got overcharged for patents
Microsoft refused to disclose. They just wave a paper with numbers (not
patents numbers, but number of invalid junk patents). Companies with real
innovation at hand (e.g. hardware/mechanical patents that express a complex
process/recipe) sell it off for vapour from Microsoft. As the story above
shows, it's irrevocable.
--
~~ Enjoying summertime
Roy S. Schestowitz | Vista: Windows XP with bling-bling, nothing else
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