Bonum Certa Men Certa

Linux Battle in Mobile Phones Becomes Primarily Legal, Not Technical, Due to Software Patents

"In United States, software mafia sues YOU!"

Pen and book



Summary: With broken patent law in the United States and in far east Asia, winners in the mobile space are determined in the courtroom rather than the market

OUR IRC regular gnufreex says that "it looks like Microsoft is down to patent trolling...



"They are dead in mobile game," he explains. "They can only try to extort patents now... And they might set off OIN... So they could be blasted forever."

Actually, the OIN has been pretty useless in that regard. It has done almost nothing at all to defend Linux against Microsoft's ongoing extortion. The mobile space is where Microsoft can make a lot of money from Android phones because Microsoft itself cannot produce anything worthy.

“They [Microsoft] can only try to extort patents now...”
      --gnufreex
"Oh... They still own Nokia," says gnufreex. "Sadly, they might pull down Nokia with them." gnufreex refers to what we last wrote about yesterday on a couple of occasions. We'll return to that later and for the time being just point out the coverage from AP, the Reuters headline which says "Analysis: Another Microsoft exec pushes escape key" (Reuters also has "Factbox: Key problems facing new Nokia CEO Elop"), and some other articles which can indicate that Nokia cannot join Android because Microsoft would not like it (Nokia has Symbian, which does not advance Linux). "Android, Symbian to Vie for Dominance as Microsoft Phone Series Flounders" says one article and another proposes "10 Things Nokia's New CEO Must Do ASAP". We consider this to be a candidate for entryism based on the statement from Steve Ballmer, but hopefully we are wrong. Surely enough, it can also be a negative to Microsoft. Murdoch's press says that "Elop's Exit Adds To Microsoft's Mounting Challenges" (to a certain degree it does).

As we showed yesterday, even Microsoft partners are unwilling to touch Vista Phone 7 [sic] this year and the number of companies that distance themselves from this platform appears to be growing (now it includes Sprint Nextel too).

Microsoft increasingly turns to software patents as a way of making money in the mobile space. Microsoft keeps paying all sorts of patent trolls and agitators like Uniloc [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] for their software patents and these companies, in turn, use this Microsoft money to sue loads of other companies. Here is Uniloc's latest:

Uniloc has vigorously pursued legal action against some of the biggest technology companies in the world over unauthorized used of its patented technology since it sued Microsoft Corp. in 2003. That case was in Rhode Island; the more recent ones have been filed in federal court in Tyler, Tex.Uniloc won a $388 million judgement against Microsoft, but the judge threw out the verdict. At that time, Uniloc attorney Paul Hayes said, “This is a real David and Goliath case. Microsoft probably makes more profit in a day than Uniloc makes in sales in a year.”More recently, Uniloc sued Sony and McAfee.Other companies sued in the newest lawsuit include CA Inc.; National Instruments Corp.; Pervasive Software Inc.; Aladdin Knowledge, part of SafeNet Inc.; Pinnacle Systems, part of Avid Technology; Sonic Solutions Inc.


Some days ago we showed that Microsoft was verbally attacking Android using patent FUD. “It does infringe on a bunch of patents, and there’s a cost associated with that,” Microsoft's Ellawala was quoted as saying. He then said “there’s a... cost associated with Android that doesn’t make it free.”

"This is exactly what I knew they'd say as soon as I read about Oracle's lawsuit against Google," Pamela Jones wrote in response to this in Groklaw. "Shame on Oracle for even inadvertently helping Microsoft FUD like this."

Oracle's lawsuit may also help .NET and Mono against Java. One blogger has just explained "how Oracle can easily be defeated in its patent offensive against Android":

Interestingly, OIN appears to be rather stealthy and no longer publishes a list of protected technologies (other than mentioning linux) nor does it make public any strategy or commitment to protect anything. It might be doing this to prevent patent trolls finding loopholes or to prevent the organisation from wasting resources in unwinnable situations. Then again, it might just be an impotent organisation with no real teeth or one that only caters to protect the interests of its founding members and no one else.

Its amazing how much power OIN has (100+ patents) yet does very little to prevent the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Oracle from their anti-competitive and unethical actions which result in terrorising users of Open source with patents. The only success it has had was to purchase a set of anti-Linux patents that Microsoft would have sold to a bunch of trolls. Time to end the moral cowardice of OIN if you ask me...


Is it time for the OIN to finally shine? OpenBytes wrote about this too: (as a side note, the site is currently being trolled too much by pro-Microsoft trolls/AstroTurfers, who also abused other Web sites including Techrights under identical names)

Which comes as little surprise since over the life of this blog Ive commented on my experiences of Winmob with a MDA Mail. Lets also cast our minds back to the praise Kin received from some individuals and whilst most tech observers were predicting a flop (it was blatantly obvious in the case of Kin) we were called haters and accused of dishonesty. These claims were never retracted when the Kin was withdrawn having allegedly sold only 500 units. 500 units for a company like Microsoft? And we “haters” were right weren’t we?

As I mentioned in the comments section of the previous article (kindly prompted by a resident troll) Verizon is allegedly not jumping on board with Windows Mobile 7 at its launch. This must come as a blow to Microsoft, but then after the Kin experience who could blame Verizon if they have been put off getting involved in Microsoft’s latest “innovations”.

I strongly suggest you read the Registers article. Whilst Microsoft siding with Oracle may not be “news”, to me shows just how impossible it considers the task of competing with Android. Windows Mobile 7 will be touting great “sales” on launch day, just remember they are giving them away to their employee’s for free (apparently)…


Microsoft booster Robert Mullins has just cited Microsoft Florian and belittled Java's future, as one ought to expect (his piece is further promoted by the pseudo-open source blog of IDG, in a new blog post which might show how much they love BSD because Microsoft too is based on some PostgreSQL codebase for its proprietary database).

While their comments were all obviously cleared by corporate, one of them, Stephen Chin, a director of software engineering, states: “This year at JavaOne is the seminal event of Oracle's stewardship, which will drive the future of Java.”

“JavaOne 2010 is THE event that will make or break Java, the technology,” writes Rom Feria, a professor at the University of the Philippines. “I cannot wait to know what Oracle will do with this awesome technology—where will Java be on the desktop, enterprise and mobile in the next in the next year or two.”


The truth of the matter is that Java is still the dominant language and Oracle had arguably legitimate concerns here (not regarding Android at all).

To Microsoft, Oracle's lawsuit against Google provides FUD against Linux and Java at the same time. To Microsoft it's all about software patents at this stage (it reinvents itself as a parasite) and as further evidence of this consider Microsoft's IP Ventures, which makes the news again in Ireland:

The company is based on technology provided by Microsoft under the Microsoft IP Ventures program in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland.

This program enabled InishTech to acquire and successfully build upon Microsoft’s IP in return for a providing Microsoft with a significant minority stake in InishTech.


Microsoft is trying to defeat GNU/Linux using absurd laws, not using products. The sooner everyone realise this, the sooner GNU/Linux blogs will place greater emphasis on subjects that truly affect the future success of Free software. As we argued some days ago, for software freedom the #1 barrier is software patents. A few days ago we explained this in great detail and earlier this month we showed that "the only remaining competition to mobile Linux is software patents" (this is one of the biggest growth areas at this moment).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed