Jonathan Zuck, Microsoft lobbyist from Association for Competitive Technology

Summary: Microsoft front group Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) is gaming the US government, trying to establish an embargo on certain Android phones while pretending to represent "small businesses"

WE were gratified to learn that the Austrian press used our research (English translation) to explain to its many readers what "Association for Competitive Technology" really is. It pretends to represent the side opposite to its goals, thereby hijacking the voice of Microsoft's opposition (Association for Competitive Technology is a Microsoft front group). Similarly, as the article from Austria explains, Florian Müller pretends to be against software patents while he is very much in favour of them and his funding sources -- Microsoft included -- easily show this. He was denying this problem until someone was starting to send us some 'dynamite' evidence, whereupon Florian decided to "come clean" and state who was funding him. Remember that he is a lobbyist, not an activist. He loves the smell of dollars, or Euros, occasionally bragging about his wealth.

Microsoft Florian supports other Microsoft lobbyists and their pressure for bans on Android/Linux. He is very shallow. He is not stupid, but he does expose himself far more often than he realises. Right now he is pushing for Microsoft's front group Association for Competitive Technology to be seen as valid and the goal is to ban HTC products. Quite the spectacle, eh? Nobody should be surprised by this. The only thing to be surprised about is how tactlessly Florian operates. He even brags about Microsoft's lead racketeer dropping some congratulatory words on him. Well, our research pays off because more publications now realise that Florian is just a Microsoft lobbyist that deserves to be denounced, not merely ignored. It is people like him who fracture society and cause a lot of harm to customers. Like we stated last year, based on some of our readers from Germany, Florian has become a national source of shame. HTC is trying to gain patents to defend against Apple, but Apple's aggression seems to have paid off in the States (US agency favours US company, no way!), partly due to the pressure from Microsoft lobbyists whom we exposed years ago. The federal government of the United States should wake up and realise that it is being bamboozled and gamed by Microsoft. They should penalise/fine Microsoft for this manipulation which directly harms American buyers. Over in Europe, Apple once again fails to ban Android products. Perhaps lying to the judged with doctored 'evidence' and appealing to trolls-friendly courts was not enough.

Microsoft's current strategy is very despicable, but not everyone understands it. Apart from feeding patent trolls for more patent lawsuits against Android Microsoft uses puppets/mouthpieces like Florian to lie and to shove fake 'news' into publications, even by mass-mailing journalists (this is the type of service Florian seems to be offering, for the pretence of independence from PR agencies). This distasteful cabal has been trying to incite manufacturers against Google, with Florian their lobbyist clearly playing this card of portraying Google as "evil" for being the victim of racketeering. "Patents emerge as significant tech strategy" is the headline of this new article which says: "What Microsoft is doing, he believes, is playing a long game, trying to isolate Google, both from the best patent lawyers and from manufacturers who could otherwise stand by Google’s side should there eventually be a direct legal battle with Microsoft."

Here is the "Intellectual Property" propaganda section of Bloomberg (Microsoft-friendly source) giving some background on this:

Microsoft’s patent licensing business began when Marshall Phelps joined the Redmond, Washington-based software company in 2003 after spending 28 years growing patent-licensing into a billion dollar business at International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Phelps was Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing until his departure in 2010.

The company began using litigation as part of its patent- licensing strategy after Horacio Gutierrez took over management of the company’s patent portfolio in 2006.

In the Microsoft statement, Gutierrez said the licensing agreement with Compal meant that more than half the companies in involved in original design manufacturing for Chrome and Android have now taken a license to his company’s patent portfolio.

Gutierrez is now working alongside Microsoft Florian (see their Twitter exchanges out in public). They work together in this racketeering crusade, which ought to raise doubts about Florian's legitimacy as a European lobbyist. One British blogger calls for a "Boycott against corporate greed" in reference to what Microsoft is doing:

Yesterday news came out that Microsoft is boasting about a total of 10 patent deals being signed so far, with Android phone manufacturers. In case you haven't been following these so-called "patent deals", Microsoft has been keeping a long list of Android manufacturers and has been checking off one by one on its list to keep Google's Android phones from continuing their dominance of the mobile phone market. But why? Microsoft claims that the Android phones violate multiple of its software patents. And they probably do, since Microsoft has been able to get away with these deals with so many companies so far and also has the power and means register thousands of patents.

But let's step back and look at the big picture. Microsoft didn't start proposing these deals until Android started to grow and gain high market success. To me, it's just plain old greed that's getting the best of Microsoft. And now Microsoft has the legal means to squeeze everything out of Android that it can, hoping to help its struggling Windows Phone 7 in the mobile phone market. Microsoft is betting on mobile phone manufacturers to change to Windows Phone 7 because they are the ones getting stuck paying the fees to Microsoft. It's a great situation for Microsoft, but it is costing Android manufacturers a fixed fee per device, which they may end up passing down to the consumer. So who gets hurt? The consumer, again. Does Microsoft care? Only if it helps its own bottom line, even at the additional expense of consumers. Microsoft has hurt consumers out of greed time after time, even its own customers.

5 years ago (minus 2 week) the Boyctott Novell Web site was launched to tackle precisely this type of crime that we foresaw. There is a massive PR campaign going on, with Microsoft trying to pass its criminal activities as "legit". We must not let fake journalists make it so. Earlier today I sent an E-mail to Google employees that I know, urging Google to take legal action. I basically explained that Google's reluctance to engage in legal action or invoke the RICO Act in defence of Android seems to be disappointing many people who are cheering for the success of the platform. By neglecting to take legal action and also accumulating its own patents, GNU/Linux platforms such as Ubuntu are left ever more vulnerable to extortionate moves from Microsoft, which the latter will use as "precedence" -- a sort of credibility test for assertions made without substantiation. Google does have the pocket to stand up to abusive behaviour that constitutes antitrust violations. Microsoft's behaviour today is worse than ever before. But the PR machine is better greased. ⬆

"The Justice Department also renewed its request that the court fine Microsoft $1 million a day for contempt and, in an unusual move, asked the judge to give the government new authority to review any new operating systems or browsers made by Microsoft at least thirty days before release."

--Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, a book composed
by the daughter of Microsoft's PR mogul