Bonum Certa Men Certa

Apple Seeks Android Bans Whilst Antitrust Attorney Speaks About Microsoft's Latest Offences Against Android (Using Patent Proxies)

"We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose."

--Steve Jobs



Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs photo by Matthew Yohe, mouth belongs to Steve Ballmer (modified by Techrights)



Summary: The patent attacks on Android/Linux and the depressing truth about lack of law enforcement in the face of collusion and racketeering

As an Android developer in a field so utterly & heavily infested with software patents (computer vision) the subject affects me personally. Apple and Microsoft have chosen to collaborate in their attack on the fastest-growing Linux-based operating system and to sit back simply ignoring it would be irrational. Developers all around the world are suffering from software patents as it not only leads to spurious litigation; it also affects behaviour (e.g. reluctance to develop due to fear, desperation, cynicism). For those who choose to engage in activism and not just develop the resentment towards Apple and Microsoft is not pathological, it's logical. When someone is attacking you the natural instinct is to fight back. It is innate, and it's a matter of one's survival.



In 2010 Apple started attacking Android by attacking little HTC (Apple had already threatened other Linux-based mobile operating systems such as WebOS). Suffice to say, we took the defensive side -- that which Apple attacked. Apple is clearly an aggressive company; the attacks by Apple were not preceded by any provocation; Nokia's lawsuits had nothing to do with Android at the time.

Based on this report, HTC is gaining some patent ammunition in order to counter what can only be described as Apple's abuse of its market position, using patents and lengthy trials. It's costly, and the purpose is to have legal costs exceed the savings incurred by choosing Android. People everywhere should boycott Apple over this appalling behaviour. Here is what HTC does for the time being:

HTC was exhibiting more than a bit of buyer's remorse after its acquisition of S3 Graphics went off the rails: it had used the $300 million deal to scoop up a company with a victory over Apple in a patent dispute at the ITC, only to see that decision reversed and its dreams crumble. S3 will be glad to know that HTC wants the shotgun wedding to last.


ITC is based on the US, so it's naturally discriminatory. It discriminates against Asian company and enables American companies (brands) like Apple to just bar the competition. Our friends at Muktware wrote this new parody about Apple. To quote the amusing opening paragraphs:

Apple CEO today announced that this year will be the last WWDC. The company announced that they are replacing it with WWLC, Apple Worldwide Lawyer Conference.

WWLC will be primarily used by Apple to showcase its new patents and court cases to lawyers, as well as offering hands-on cross-examination and cease and desist sessions.

Apple has released, iSue, a suite of new tools and technologies for developers which they can use to get in direct touch with lawyers.


Microsoft is not any better, although its strategy is different. Microsoft is trying to extort rather than bar Android and it also sends out patent trolls (or patent terrorists) to detonate some patents in Android's face. An antitrust attorney writes in an AOL-owned site about what Microsoft is doing with Nokia:

Nokia and Microsoft Alliance Raise Significant Competition Concerns



In March 2011, Nokia and Microsoft formed what they called a "strategic partnership" after the Windows 7 developer paid $1 billion to the world's largest handset maker. Aspects of the deal quickly revealed Nokia, once a strong open source advocate, was turning its back on its friends and unleashing its patents against open source technologies such as Android. The aging tech giants established a new business model for the handset maker -- one of asserting Nokia's vast patent portfolio to demand higher licensing fees and garner a higher percentage of sales royalties.

Microsoft and Nokia understand the threat of a countersuit generally tempers the incentive for large technology companies to engage in aggressive and oppressive patent enforcement. Any stand-off is often resolved through pro-competitive cross-licensing arrangements between the technology companies. This is the optimal outcome for consumers, as it ensures more developers have access to the patents and technologies they need to continue developing new products. However, Microsoft and Nokia are not striving for the optimal outcome; they want to cripple their competitors, even at the cost of harming consumers. So, how to leverage a patent trove without the threat of countersuit? Get patent trolls to do your dirty work.

Just six months after the alliance formed, Microsoft and Nokia jointly armed a known patent troll called MOSAID with 2,000 of Nokia patents, 1,200 of which are standard essential patents or SEPs. It was soon discovered that under the terms of the agreement the aging tech giants would share the royalties from these patents with MOSAID. The "strategic partnership" didn't stop there. Nokia then turned around and armed another troll, Sisvel, with 450 patents. Recently, Nokia and its trolls started launching attacks against Android partners HTC and ViewSonic. Lawsuits by these trolls against Android original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are expected soon.

This is nothing short of a frontal assault on the use of open source software which is the foundation for the explosive growth of smartphones. Open source means there is a technology highway with no toll booths. The Android code was released as open source, meaning the code is free for anyone to use or improve. Google provides Android for free to reduce costs so more people can afford a smart phone and to encourage innovation. With more than 550 Android devices on the market, there's no question Android has accomplished these goals.

It is not entirely surprising that Microsoft and Nokia are desperate to disarm their competitors, and attempt to kill off open source. Nokia and Microsoft have struggled to adapt to a smart phone ecosystem underscored by rapid growth and collaborative innovation. What is surprising, though, is their decision to turn to patent trolls as the weapon of choice. Notwithstanding the cutthroat competition in the industry, none of the other prominent companies have ever resorted to such underhanded tactics as trolling. All of these companies have dealt with patent trolls before and know they are nothing but a tax on the industry, extracting money while producing nothing, and driving up costs for everyone else.


The issue of MOSAID was raised to authorities by B&N, but Microsoft then bribed B&N, leaving Google to file its own complaint in Europe. This is one abuse on top of another. Microsoft is still a mafia-like company, masquerading as a respectable company. Nokia is controlled by the mafia-like company now; the mafia is not doing well in the marketplace (Lumia) and people who buy WP7-based Nokia phones should be accused of buying from the mafia. "It's not doing well in the marketplace," writes to us a Techrights contributor from Finland, "but people who should know better have been trying to boost it by signing deals...

"Tomi Ahonen covers Nokia a lot. It's basically dead and just a matter of time before it finishes crumbling because of the Elopocalype.

"R.I.C.O. should be pursued," wrote this contributor.

Over at Ars Technica, a longtime Microsoft booster writes about the “Defensive Patent License” which Microsoft boosters and lobbyists have seemed keen on for a couple of years (they don't like OIN and this is an OS-agnostic OIN competitor, i.e. Microsoft can join). Here is what the booster says:

A couple of months ago, Twitter made a pledge that is heartening to anyone sick of patent lawsuits. The company will not use any patents derived from employee inventions to launch offensive lawsuits without the inventor’s permission.

[...]

Developed by Berkeley Law professors Jason Schultz and Jennifer Urban, the Defensive Patent License (DPL) project has been in development well before Twitter’s pledge. The project just launched its website and the legal document members will be asked to commit to.

Any company that commits to the terms of the Defensive Patent License would have to pledge all of the patents it owns to this league of do-gooders. Any other member of the league would gain a free license to any other member’s patents, and no one in the league would be allowed to launch offensive patent lawsuits against other members of the league. Doing so would be grounds for the member to have its license revoked.


The headline says the the DPL is designed "to protect innovators from trolls," but this does nothing against trolls. In fact, it leaves companies in a position where they can still summon or recruit trolls to do their fighting against fellow DPL members. This whole approach is a waste of time and a distraction. The real solution is to probe and potentially arrest Apple and Microsoft executives for their abuses (there are laws for that, but we never expect them to be enforced against affluent people), then annul all software patents.

As we are cynical about the way laws are constructed and applied (lobbied by the rich to protect the rich), we expect nothing of that sort to happen. In the United States, software patents are unlikely to vanish soon and just as no bankers got arrested for embezzlement, fraud, deception, and so on, we expect no high-tech executive to be arrested or even fined for mafia-like tactics.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Some Cola Formulas Aren't Secret, But the Barrier is the Branding
That's the power of the channel/distribution, marketing, and brand recognition (accomplished through endless marketing)
Tesla's Debt More Than Doubled in 2 Years and the Company Will Operate in the Red (at a Loss) Quite Soon
If your first-quarter net income is $409 million and you borrow billions from banks, plus interest to pay on those loans, then you're not far from returning to losses
 
Openwashing Slop... Using Slop!
So get ready for "open" "hey hi" with its proprietary models to engage in openwashing, helped by serial sloppers who use the LLMs to produce fake 'articles'.
On "Tragedy of the Commons in the Production of Digital Artifacts"
There's a better way to do things. None of that should involve GAFAM.
Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Opel Zoo near Frankfurt and Alhena 5.2.5
Links for the day
The Inflammatory Influence of Social Control Media Giants
CPC's ByteDance says it's cool
Microsoft v Planet Earth
Is Microsoft profitable?
IRC Turns 37
Internet Relay Chat (short: IRC), which started in 1988, turns 37 this month
Shortly After a Microsofter Took Over The Register as Editor in Chief Microsoft Tim (Tim Anderson) is Back and It's Still Microsoft Propaganda, Sometimes Funded by Microsoft
Notice his focus
Stricter Enforcement of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is Sorely Needed
Who's keeping track anyway?
Calling Plagiarism "Intelligence" is Pure Genius, Brilliance!
One thing to "like" (or dislike) about LLMs is how they're falsely marketed using various buzzwords
Geminispace Promises Simplicity But Also Provides a "bunch of forums that get flood-filled by agitation against the very essence of Gemini itself"
claims of stagnation in Geminispace started because of a person who spent a long time agitating against GNU/Linux as well
Zimbabweans Aren't Into Windows or Microsoft
This cannot be good news for GAFAM
Microsoft's Washington Layoffs Aren't Everything, They're Definitely Not Happening in Just One State in the US
Washington is just more strict with WARN notices
Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Lagrange v1.18.6, No Stagnation in Geminispace, and Fake Coding (Slop)
Links for the day
The Register's Editor in Chief (Who Left for Google) Told Me "AI" Was a Bubble, But Now The Register Gets Paid to Participate in Inflating This Bubble
A lot of the online media is a scam
Introducing Mission:Libre and FreeXR (and BreakXR)
efforts that accompany the foundations put there by the Free Software Foundation in 1985
Slopwatch: WebProNews, LinuxSecurity, and Some Success Stories
Google News still has a slopfarm issue
Links 05/08/2025: Hey Hi (AI) Passing Fads and GAFAM "Embracing the Military"
Links for the day
Links 05/08/2025: Samsung and Microsoft Layoffs
Links for the day
Rumours of Mass Layoffs at Red Hat Next Week (August 11th, 2025)
The eleventh means next Monday
IBM is Shutting Down (Piecewise)
IBM is basically being liquidated
The Debian Language Police Department (PD)
"there has never been complaints about anyone that was offended by this -off package"
When The Register MS Says "Linux Backdoor" It Actually Talks About Malware
The leading story in The Register US/MS this morning is Microsoft
Microsoft Windows Fell to 19% "Market Share" in Montenegro
Microsoft must be well aware of this trend
Why We Also Include Gopher Links in Our Gemini (Protocol) Links
There are still many people who use Gopher to relay their messages (like blog posts). They're mostly technical people.
Shouting is an Indication of a Lack of Convincing Argument
Beware what they are attempting to distract from
Mongolia: Microsoft Windows at All-Time Low
in 2009 when Windows was at 99.45% in Mongolia the company was "worth" less than 200 billion dollars
About a Quarter of Today's "linux" News in Google News Came From One Domain and It's a Slopfarm
Not kidding!
Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Zombie Threat and Switching to NixOS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 04, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 04, 2025
ChatGPT in Trouble
Watch out for the newer buzzwords
The Register MS Links to the Wrong statCounter Page
They link to older data
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains How Google Turned From "Librarian" Into "Oracle", Telling Us What to Think Instead of Where to Look
Google was always a lousy librarian
Microsoft Layoffs Continue in August 2025
If Microsoft is doing so well, how come about 10 rounds of layoffs in about 7 months in 2025?
Microsoft and Windows Have Many Back Doors, But LLM Slop Keep Claiming That Linux Has "Backdoor"
It's another example of LLM slop as FUD amplifier, via slopfarms as well
In Many Countries Vista 11 Adoption Stalled or Became Negative
Not just because people move to GNU/Linux
Microsofters' Lawyers Are Name-calling and Insulting Microsoft Critics, Even Their Spouses
How not to win arguments
Flagging or Tagging Slop That We Find Online
Right now we use ImageMagick
Links 04/08/2025: Very Bad Weather and Travel Restrictions in China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Misiamisia and Mobile Linux
Links for the day
Microsoft's Stock is Like a Religion, Microsoft Goes Into 'Hiding' (From Shareholders)
like a religious person or devout believer, the media just parrot anything Microsoft says
Links 04/08/2025: 80 Years Since Last Nuclear War, IPv6 in China
Links for the day
Groklaw Static Site Relaunches With New Theme, But Many Pages and All the Comments Are Missing
We suppose that's still a lot better than the site being offline, as it was for several months
"For Five decades; For freedoms; For all users" (Original EMACS Turns 50 Next Year)
Linus Benedict Torvalds was only 6 when EMACS started
In Spain, Microsoft's Search Engine Market Share Fell to 2%
16 years have passed since Bing was introduced
Protecting GNU/Linux-Centric Journalism From Serial Sloppers
Unoriginal slop is taking away traffic from the people who did all the real work
It Looks Like Managers at Oracle Now Use LLM Slop to Write Blog Posts
Did he cheat by prompting LLMs for mindless text "filler"?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 03, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Qubes OS and Curious crypto case of certificates (CCCC)
Links for the day
They Tell Us That "Cloud Storage" is Safe and Robust to Incidents Like Fires
Do you have backups? Where are they and who controls them?
"Allowing SDL to default to Wayland caused a number of customer issues so keep the default at X11 for now"
2025 is another year of Wayland ambitions. It's also a year of self-fulfilling prophecies.
In The United Kingdom (UK), Microsoft Search (Bing) Falls to All-Time Low
Grow? What grow??? It's collapsing.
GNU/Linux Reaches 5% in Oman
Some GNU/Linux distros are made in Oman
Google's "AI Mode" is a Pathetic Joke Prematurely Introduced in the UK (Like "Bard", Which Sank the Company's Shares)
what Google "thinks" about PCLinuxOS
What the Free Software Foundation Started Four Decades Ago is Becoming Mainstream
"Four decades; Four freedoms; For all users"
Doing a Better Job at Labelling Slop Images
we'll label screenshots that contain slop, typically with red-coloured text overlay
Social Control Media is Out of Style
What's your excuse for wasting time on (or in) it?
Maldives: GNU/Linux at All-Time High, Windows at New Lows
data from statCounter shows a reassuring trend
Efficiency is Good, So Why Won't Governments Cull LLM Companies Using Stronger, Stringent Policies?
Like every bubble that ever existed, including some recent ones, an end will come
The Defunct Site LinuxConfig Has Published a Fake Article About Richard Stallman Using LLM Slop, Which Stallman Calls "Bullshit Generator"
Worse yet, it is writing using a "Bullshit Generator" (the term used by Stallman) about Stallman's health
Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Lows in Morocco and Algeria
About 70% or even less
StopGenAI in the Cyber Show (C|S)
covering a theme that we too covered a lot lately
Gemini Links 03/08/2025: Once-a-Decade Couch Shopping and Blessings in Disguise
Links for the day
Links 03/08/2025: Political Catch-up, Global Warming, and Hunger
Links for the day
Brittany Day Entered LLM Slop Into LinuxSecurity.com and Something Hilarious Happened: The Site is "Exploited"
The brainless, effortless copypasta of "slop artists" shows its limits
Links 03/08/2025: Microsoft Exchange 0-day Exploited and Avoidable Nuclear Escalation
Links for the day
Next Month 'New Techrights' Turns Two
Next month, on the fourth week, it'll be 2 years since the migration
Definitely Not a Ponzi Scheme
Bitcoin v Microsoft
Online Safety Act Tries to Accomplish the Impossible
All I can say is, "good luck with that!"
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a Billionaires' Lobby
Billionaires that control tech companies
Microsoft Borrows 3 Billion Dollars Per Month, a Company Truly Worth Trillions Would Not Do This
if Windows (and Office) "market share" fell from about 90% to barely 30%, how come Microsoft is now "valued" at 20 times more?
It's Even Worse Than Microsoft Lunduke Puts It; GNOME is SLAPPing Journalists
In our experience, GNOME is so malicious - some elements of it in particular - that it would launch multiple simultaneous SLAPP campaigns not only against journalists but also their spouses
GNU/Linux Adoption Reaches All-Time Highs in Chile, statCounter Indicates
This month marks 4 years since Vista 11 came out (as a fake "leak") and some surveys still measure its adoption at less than 40%
Slop Will Not Change the World
Some of us grow up sooner and leave that nonsense behind (or altogether avoid/skip it)
Gemini Links 03/08/2025: Nostalgia and TOFU
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 02, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 02, 2025