Bonum Certa Men Certa

Anti-Smartphones Patent Troll Equipped With 2,000 Microsoft-led Nokia Patents

Patent stooges



Summary: Using a proxy (patent troll), Microsoft's patent cartel appears to be preparing for a legal war on Linux

AS POINTED out about an hour ago, Linux is winning in mobile platforms. There is evidence of this coming from different directions, so it seems irreversible. When GNU/Linux was winning on the server side, Microsoft paid SCO which back then launched the never-ending SCO case, so we know what Microsoft is capable of. Microsoft also tried (but got caught by the OIN) to sell some Linux-hostile patents to patent trolls [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The biggest mistake one can make is assume that Microsoft is "dead" and therefore doing nothing more to harm GNU/Linux.



As we noted earlier in the week, Microsoft's partner Attachmate now possesses UNIX, but not before Attachmate gave a lot of Linux-hostile patents to Microsoft (CPTN). As TechDirt points out, "part of the legal fight involved SCO claiming slander against Novell for telling the world that SCO didn't actually hold the copyrights for UNIX. SCO tried to claim that this hurt its business, and Novell reasonably countered that the thing that really hurt SCO's business was its own actions -- and, as part of that, showed the jury a BusinessWeek article about how SCO was "The Most Hated Company in Tech." SCO claimed this was hearsay, but the court didn't buy it, noting that it was one minor image seen by the jury over a much larger trial, but, more importantly, noted that "there was repeated testimony and argument over the course of the trial pointing out the unpopularity of the SCO Source program.""

SCO is just a bad PR absorption proxy, it is being used by others to cause trouble to Linux. Look no further than those who funded SCO, either directly or directly. "Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system, explained Larry Goldfarb, a key investor in SCO who had been approached by Microsoft. "But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux."

Microsoft recently took over Nokia (senior Nokia staff claims this), which helps Microsoft "neutralise" MeeGo, to use the word the OIN's CEO repeatedly used in his very long conversation with me. Some patents are now being passed to a patent troll, MOSAID, which is already attacking Linux companies (Groklaw covered this several days ago). The pro-Microsoft lobbyist is promoting this press release titled "MOSAID Acquires 1,200 Nokia Standards-Essential Wireless Patents and 800 Wireless Implementation Patents". To quote a portion:

The patents and patent applications cover technologies used in a wide range of mobile communications devices and services. One hundred of the patent families, consisting of approximately 1,200 patents and applications, have been declared essential to second, third and fourth-generation communications standards, including GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications),


Dr. Glyn Moody quotes "expected to generate income from lawsuits" and says that this is "totally sick". Here is an article about it. "Nokia sees Canadian IP firm manage 2,000 of its patents in licensing and lawsuit push" says the headline. So Elop's (Microsoft's) Nokia is now using a proxy for extortion. Why? Because unlike Nokia, it cannot be sued back. It has no products. Here at Techrights we've warned about Nokia's patents since 2007. We did this many times, even though Nokia was exploring Linux at the time. In other news today, "Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Weighs In On Patent Issues: They’re ‘Terrible’". Who can blame him for saying that? To quote:

Eric Schmidt, Google’s Executive Chairman and former CEO, took the stage at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco today to talk about a host of topics, including the success of Google Apps, his feelings about Steve Jobs, Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola, with the conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff even ranging into Schmidt’s thoughts on the current landscape facing the U.S. patent market.

The executive chairman began by addressing the purchase of Nortel Networks’ roster of patents by a group of buyers that included some of Google’s rivals, including Microsoft and Apple. Fellow TechCruncher MG Siegler covered the back-and-forth between Google and Microsoft that unfolded in regard to the supposition that the group that bought the Nortel patents was effectively attempting to cut the legs out from underneath Android.


Also see the mew blog post "Patent Shill Attacks Google for Complaining about Patent Predation" and mind the new article "Apple Cries About Samsung and Motorola's Patent 'Monopoly'". [via]

I. Apple Claims Android Phone makers are "Abusing" Patent System

Yes, this is the same Apple that has initiated a patent war [1][2][3][4][5] with these smartphone rivals. And it's the same rival that has tried to remove competing products from the market, rather than agree to negotiate a licensing fee. And it's the same company that patented multi-touch gestures 26 years after they were invented at a research university. And it's the same company that allegedly doctored evidence in European courts [1][2] to support its lawsuits against Android.

Yet in Apple's rose-colored glasses it is Samsung and Motorola who are bullies. Apparently Apple is irate about these companies' countersuits, which rely largely on patents covering wireless communications.



Apple and Microsoft are waging patent war on Linux, through Android. Now they are using trolls to prepare for legal attacks that are harder for Google to counter. Where on Earth are antitrust regulators? This is sheer corruption. It is a cartel and it is a clear distortion of the market... brought to the world by Apple to Microsoft. They cannot compete on a technical basis, so they cheat, they extort, they intimidate, and they hide behind proxies like CPTN and apparently MOSAID.

Recent Techrights' Posts

More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Links 29/03/2024: Fentanylware (TikTok) Fines and UK High Court Makes It Seem OK to Assassinate People Wrongly (Falsely) Associated With "Russia"
Links for the day
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries