09.09.08
Quick Mention: Patent Pirate (Philips) to be Sued
The bullying of vendors by Philips did not go unnoticed. As a recap, Philips was using proxies to do its ‘pirating’ (armed people threatening vendors face-to-face) [1, 2, 3, 4]. According to The Register, at least one lawsuit will come.
A Taiwanese firm is taking legal action over damage to its reputation after an Italian patent troll representing Philips prompted the raid of a Berlin consumer electronics show last month.
Teco was among 69 companies targeted by some 200 armed German custom officers during the IFA trade fair in Berlin. The raid was done at the request of Sisvel, which administers MP3 and DVD technology patents on behalf of Philips. Sisvel had complained that exhibitors at IFA may be infringing on patents owned by its client.
This makes one wonder if Microsoft can still be sued or fined in Germany for slandering GNU/Linux — a behaviour sometimes referred to as “patent terrorism” [1, 2].█
Photo under the GNU Free Documentation license
pcole said,
September 9, 2008 at 6:45 am
Been following this action; it has been an eye opener.
Normal everyday folks, trying to do their work only to be blindsided by patent trolls with a suspicion. Monopolies & patent trolls – labia to sphincter affair. Just another example indicating swpatents should not exist.
pcole; you’re under arrest for voicing the same idea Roy has; even though yours is in spanish and Roy’s is in english.
Roy Schestowitz said,
September 9, 2008 at 6:52 am
I think it serves as a good example of the troll/titian tie-up, whereby a big corporation is afraid of ruining its public image, so it recruits a troll. Think about Microsoft and Acacia, which absorbed Microsoft employees before the action against GNU/Linux.
pcole said,
September 9, 2008 at 7:59 am
How the worm turns – Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his executives, Bill Gates wrote, “If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.” Mr. Gates worried that “some large company will patent some obvious thing” and use the patent to “take as much of our profits as they want.”
If this reptile was telling the truth, he would give the FSF custody of MS swpats.
Roy Schestowitz said,
September 9, 2008 at 8:05 am
He says a lot of hypocritical things. I’m writing a post at the moment about
potMicrosoft accusingkettleGoogle of being a monopoly — a dangerous monopoly.