WE RECENTLY added a wiki page about Kodak because we expect the company's patents to become a major disaster. Mike Masnick thinks so too. "At the moment," he explains, "the patent system is seriously malfunctioning. The high volume of low quality, poorly defined patents, particularly in the software and IT industries, is catalyzing the explosion in patent litigation. And lately, the problem has been getting much worse. In fact, the amount of litigation involving software patents has tripled since 1999 and a software patent is more than twice as likely [PDF] to be involved in litigation as its non-software counterparts."

"The bottom line is, dying companies are being exploited by Microsoft for propaganda. "He then explained what role Kodak is likely to play now that it's a dying company, just like Honeywell, which Microsoft recently used for anti-Android/Linux FUD. The reports about this were few, but Microsoft boosters such as Kurt Mackie, writing for the 'Microsoft press', took the opportunity to spin and generate FUD by quoting Microsoft, its FUD partners, and other Microsoft mouthpieces. To quote: "Honeywell announced last week that it paid royalties to Microsoft for the use of technologies associated with the Linux-based Android and Google Chrome OS operating systems."

The author uses propaganda terms like "intellectual property (IP) licensing" and then quotes Microsoft stooges, calling them "independent". In his own words: "Cherry should know, having worked as a program manager on the Microsoft Windows Embedded team before joining Directions on Microsoft. Kirkland, Wash.-based Directions on Microsoft is an independent consultancy that advises clients on Microsoft technologies and licensing, and publishes research papers."

Directions on Microsoft is not independent, it is a factory of Microsoft spin.

The bottom line is, dying companies are being exploited by Microsoft for propaganda. TomTom is one example although TomTom at least fought back (with its limited resources). It is when companies implode like a death star that we find out how unbelievably bad patents really are. Kodak is a ticking bomb right now. ⬆