02.25.09

Quick Mention: Microsoft, Amid/Near Debt, Declares Legal War on Linux

Posted in Courtroom, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft, TomTom, Videos at 7:30 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

If any proof was needed that Microsoft is going down, it’s this desperate first lawsuit against Linux (over patents). The lawsuit is against TomTom, whose CEO recently made the statements seen below.

More details to come shortly.

TomTom CEO: ‘We spent more money on patent litigation then R&D

TomTom CEO: ‘The cumbersome patent situation works against everyone who is trying to build business’

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

6 Comments

Myfraudsoft said,

February 25, 2009 at 8:03 pm

Second link (slashdot) gives error page.
Roy Schestowitz said,

February 25, 2009 at 8:27 pm

Thanks, I made a typo. It works now.
Shane Coyle said,

February 25, 2009 at 9:10 pm

Insofar as allegations that seem to relate to Linux, they seem to be mostly about FAT filesystem.

One feature that they seem to be impressed with themselves about is storing a long and short version of a filename, like Progra~1/Program Files I guess. Two different patent #’s listed on that one, um, innovation.

I haven’t (won’t) look at the patents, but the slashdot article links to the complaints – patent numbers are in there if you are interested. What I find interesting is that this is just after SCOTUS winked in the direction of Rambus and basically said submarine patenting is a valid tactic.

Let it become a (de-facto or even facto) standard first, then starting sending out royalty demands after.
Victor Soliz said,

February 25, 2009 at 10:42 pm

Sounds much worse than an attack on Linux.

An attack on Linux was always appraochable.

An attack on third parties using FAT32 is going to screw everybody, if mp3 was bad, imagine that you will need to pay royalties just to read an average flash drive.
amd-linux said,

February 26, 2009 at 1:56 am

As the final battle M$ vs. Freedom now seems to start, I hope Groklaw gets back to life soon. Me thinks that this could is the start of the final showdown in Microsoft’s crusade against freedom. I hope you keep us updated.

BTW:
Here is a German court decision over alleged MS claims with regard to the FAT filessystem:

http://vale.homelinux.net/wordpress/2007/03/01/two-short-and-clear-messages-from-germany-to-steve-b/
twitter said,

February 26, 2009 at 4:16 pm

M$ is twirling down the toilet now. The 52 week M$FT low is now $16.36. They closed at $16.42 today. This should be compared to their Y2K price of nearly $60 and “recovery” price of $30 or so. See this short history of M$’s patent extortion and keep up with my M$ Death Watch for more fun.

I’m not sure how the TomTom lawsuit jibes with Mr. Gates’ October 2008 prediction that offshoring would prevent the current depression:

“It looks like the economy may go down somewhat, but nothing like a big recession or a depression. … The amount of innovation taking place, the amount of investment is actually greater today than ever,” Gates said. “Because you not only have more American companies with more scientists and engineers and innovators, but now you have … people from all over, including lots of people in India and China, now contributing to new drug design, new software design, new energy generation design.”

Nice guy, isn’t he?

What Else is New

Code of Coercion

Entryism is visible for all to see, but pointing it out is becoming a risky gambit because of the "be nice!" (or "be polite!") crowd, which shields the perpetrators of a slow and gradual corporate takeover
António Campinos Would Not Refer to the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal If He Did Not Control the Outcomes

António Campinos and his ilk aren’t interested in patent quality because his former ‘boss’, who publicly denied there were issues and vainly rejected patent quality concerns as illegitimate, is now controlled by him (reversal of roles) and many new appointees at the top are "yes men" (or women) of Campinos, former colleagues whom he bossed at EUIPO (as expected)
Links 22/4/2019: Linux 5.1 RC6, New Release of Netrunner and End of Scientific Linux

Links for the day
USPTO and EPO Both Slammed for Abandoning Patent Quality and Violating the Law/Caselaw in Order to Grant Illegitimate Patents on Life/Nature and Mathematics

Mr. Iancu, the ‘American Battistelli’ (appointed owing to nepotism), mirrors the ‘Battistelli operandi’, which boils down to treating judges like they’re stooges and justices like an ignorable nuisance — all this in the name of litigation profits, which necessitate constant wars over illegitimate patents (it is expensive to prove their illegitimacy)
IRC Proceedings: January 27th, 2019 – March 24th, 2019

Many IRC logs
IRC Proceedings: December 2nd, 2018 – January 26th, 2019

Many IRC logs
Links 21/4/2019: SuperTuxKart's 1.0 Release, Sam Hartman Is Debian’s Newest Project Leader (DPL)

Links for the day
The EPO's Use of Phrases Like “High-Quality Patent Services” Means They Know High-Quality European Patents Are 'Bygones'

The EPO does a really poor job hiding the fact that its last remaining objective is to grant as many European Patents as possible (and as fast as possible), conveniently conflating quality with pace
A Reader's Suggestion: Directions for Techrights

Guest post by figosdev
Links 20/4/2019: Weblate 3.6 and Pop!_OS 19.04

Links for the day
The Likes of Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), Team Campinos and Team UPC Don't Represent Europe But Hurt Europe

The abject disinterest in patent quality and patent validity (as judged by courts) threatens Europe but not to the detriment of those who are in the 'business' of suing and printing lots of worthless patents
The Linux Foundation Needs to Change Course Before GNU/Linux (as a Free Operating System) is Dead

The issues associated with the Linux Foundation are not entirely new; but Linux now incorporates so many restrictions and contains so many binary blobs that one begins to wonder what "Linux" even means
Largest Patent Offices Try to Leave Courts in a State of Disarray to Enable the Granting of Fake Patents in the US and Europe

Like a monarchy that effectively runs all branches of government the management of the EPO is trying to work around the judiciary; the same is increasingly happening (or at least attempted) in the United States
Links 19/4/2019: PyPy 7.1.1, LabPlot 2.6, Kipi Plugins 5.9.1 Released

Links for the day
Links 18/4/2019: Ubuntu and Derivatives Have Releases, digiKam 6.1.0, OpenSSH 8.0 and LibreOffice 6.2.3

Links for the day
Freedom is Not a Business and Those Who Make 'Business' by Giving it Away Deserve Naming

Free software is being parceled and sold to private monopolisers; those who facilitate the process enrich themselves and pose a growing threat to freedom in general — a subject we intend to tackle in the near future
Concluding the Linux Foundation (LF) “Putting the CON in Conference!” (Part 3)

Conferences constructed or put together based on payments rather than merit pose a risk to the freedom of free software; we conclude our series about events set up by the largest of culprits, which profits from this erosion of freedom
“Mention the War” (of Microsoft Against GNU/Linux)

The GNU/Linux desktop (or laptops) seems to be languishing or deteriorating, making way for proprietary takeover in the form of Vista 10 and Chrome OS and “web apps” (surveillance); nobody seems too bothered — certainly not the Linux Foundation — by the fact that GNU/Linux itself is being relegated or demoted to a mere “app” on these surveillance platforms (WSL, Croûton and so on)
The European Patent Office Does Not Care About the Law, Today's Management Constantly Attempts to Bypass the Law

Many EPs (European Patents) are actually "IPs" (invalid patents); the EPO doesn't seem to care and it is again paying for corrupt scholars to toe the party line
The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) Once Again Pours Cold Water on Patent Maximalists

Any hopes of a rebound or turnaround have just been shattered because a bizarre attack on the appeal process (misusing tribal immunity) fell on deaf ears and software patents definitely don't interest the highest court, which already deemed them invalid half a decade ago
Links 17/4/2019: Qt 5.12.3 Released, Ola Bini Arrested (Political Stunts)

Links for the day
Links 16/4/2019: CentOS Turns 15, Qt Creator 4.9.0 Released

Links for the day
GNU/Linux is Being Eaten Alive by Large Corporations With Their Agenda

A sort of corporate takeover, or moneyed interests at the expense of our freedom, can be seen as a 'soft coup' whose eventual outcome would involve all or most servers in 'the cloud' (surveillance with patent tax as part of the rental fees) and almost no laptops/desktops which aren't remotely controlled (and limit what's run on them, using something like UEFI 'secure boot')
Reader's Claim That Rules Similar to the Code of Conduct (CoC) Were 'Imposed' on LibrePlanet and the FSF

Restrictions on speech are said to have been spread and reached some of the most liberal circles, according to a credible veteran who opposes illiberal censorship
Corporate Media Will Never Cover the EPO's Violations of the Law With Respect to Patent Scope

The greed-driven gold rush for patents has resulted in a large pool of European Patents that have no legitimacy and are nowadays associated with low legal certainty; the media isn't interested in covering such a monumental disaster that poses a threat to the whole of Europe
A Linux Foundation Run by People Who Reject Linux is Like a Children's Charity Whose Management Dislikes Children

We remain concerned about the lack of commitment that the Linux Foundation has for Linux; much of the Linux Foundation's Board, for example, comes from hostile companies
Links 15/4/2019: Linux 5.1 RC5 and SolydXK Reviewed

Links for the day
Links 14/4/2019: Blender 2.80 Release Plan and Ducktype 1.0

Links for the day
'Poor' (Multi-Millionaire) Novell CEO, Who Colluded With Steve Ballmer Against GNU/Linux, is Trying to Censor Techrights

Novell’s last CEO, a former IBMer who just like IBM decided to leverage software patents against the competition (threatening loads of companies using "platoons of patent lawyers"), has decided that siccing lawyers at us would be a good idea
Guest Post: The Linux Foundation (LF) is “Putting the CON in Conference!” (Part 2)

Calls for papers (CfP) and who gets to assess what's presented or what's not presented is a lesser-explored aspect, especially in this age when large corporate sponsors get to indirectly run entire 'community' events