08.27.09
Microsoft Manipulates Patent Laws; DOJ, HP and Dell Help Microsoft
Summary: Microsoft wants Linux to pay Microsoft for software patents, but such patent must not apply to Microsoft
MICROSOFT’S deal with Tuxera is truly mystifying not because its nature was kept secret but because of the way it was announced.
People of Tuxera are going around the Web and spreading (almost flaunting) the patent deal. Maybe Taxera would be a more suitable name for the company because of what it is doing. It’s not alone though. The Var Guy is promoting LikeWise at the moment, neglecting to add that Likewise Software is connected to Microsoft [1, 2] and it typically means more software patent royalties (tax). These companies are using supposedly “open-source” implementations of Microsoft software and then add a “Microsoft tax” to them. Microsoft hopes to substitute “free” (gratis and libre) with “patent encumbered” and “legal”.
As always, patent law applies to Microsoft not the way it is applied to others. As one person points out in Linux Today:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137107/Mic rosoft_wins…
The DOJ is fast tracking Microsoft’s appeal against the Word XML patent injunction. It seems there is one law for Microsoft and one for everyone else.
It is not only the US DOJ which is in Microsoft’s pocket [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Watch who else showed up to defend Microsoft: “The i4i-Microsoft Appeal – HP and Dell Ask to File Amicus Briefs in Support of Microsoft”
HP and Dell have asked the court to allow them to file amicus briefs in support of Microsoft’s Emergency Motion to Stay Permanent Injunction Pending Appeal in the i4i patent litigation.
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Microsoft, if it is guilty of such conduct, might need to revise its business model. If not, if this keeps happening, partners may find themselves at least factoring it into theirs, or at least I would.
Let’s remember that H-P helped Microsoft by lobbying for OOXML and Dell joined the Microsoft-Novell deal. It’s a small world after all. █
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 27, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Here is more information which may be valuable: “If any money changed hands as part of the latest patent deal, neither Tuxera nor Microsoft is talking about those details. (I asked; Välimäki said that information is confidential.) But according to an August 6 post on the Tuxera blog, the pair signed their agreement after only three days of physical negotiations. (Plus a year of early preparations….)”
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