10.07.11
Weeks After Google Buys Part of Motorola Microsoft’s Patent Troll Sues Motorola
Summary: The extortion racket run by Microsoft’s former CTO terrorises and then sues Motorola, which has given Microsoft reasons for concern recently
THE ISSUE which is Microsoft patent trolls has been covered here for years. It is a well established fact that Microsoft is using entities other than itself to raise the price of Linux (which is otherwise free). Microsoft got caught doing this before and with some of Microsoft’s own employees setting up operations like Intellectual Ventures, it is abundantly clear that we cannot confine ourselves to just Microsoft when looking at the actions of the Microsoft Movement. According to IDG’s Microsoft booster, Microsoft’s largest patent troll has been harassing Motorola using patents and is now suing:
Patent licensing company Intellectual Ventures has set its sights on Motorola with a new lawsuit charging the handset maker with infringing six patents.
The patents cover a wide range of technologies related to text messaging, docking stations and pushing software out to devices.
Intellectual Ventures, which owns 35,000 patents, said it approached Motorola in January about licensing patents, including several named in the case, according to the lawsuit. Motorola refused to license the patents, Intellectual Ventures said.
More trolling courtesy of sociopaths from Microsoft, who are attacking Microsoft rivals behind the scenes. Microsoft too sued Motorola. Such behaviour should be a matter of antitrust regulation and federal enforcers. They don’t seem to mind the RICO Act, but ideally, under a sane system, those people would potentially be in prison, not out there threatening people, which is a form of corporate terrorism. This gangster behaviour is thriving in the IT industry because the public does not demand change actively enough.
Here is a better article which is better worded as it was not composed by a Microsoft booster. The well known author misspells “patent-hoarding” though:
Patent-holding firm Intellectual Ventures has filed suit against the company in the US claiming Motorola handsets violate patents it holds related to both hardware and software components in smartphone handsets.
What we see here is not the first time that the world’s largest patent troll sues even directly. This is a tax on everything that people buy and nobody benefits from it except few ring leaders, who engage in racketeering. Why can’t the corporate press describe this properly? This further perpetuates the belief that these practices are acceptable and should not be criticised. It helps marginalise voices of proponents of restoration of justice, not just improved pace of innovation. █
