02.01.16
Gemini version available ♊︎It’s Official: By Means of Entryism, Microsoft Has Turned a Pro-Linux Nokia Into an Anti-Linux Patent Parasite
“Patent monopolies are believed to drive innovation but they actually impede the pace of science and innovation, Stiglitz said. The current “patent thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure to encourage innovation, he said.”
–IP Watch on Professor Joseph Stiglitz
Summary: Microsoft has made a sort of patent troll out of Nokia and Nokia now attacks Linux and Android
Microsoft turned Nokia into an anti-Android/Linux patent troll, as expected. Is anybody surprised? We foresaw this right from the very start. So did others (even those whom Microsoft paid for ‘reports’).
As Florian Müller put it this morning: “As I suspected, the 2013 Nokia-Samsung patent deal is far from comprehensive: litigation still a possibility” (at the time he was still close to Microsoft).
To quote Müller’s blog: “The fact that most of Nokia’s patent assertions against HTC failed (though HTC ultimately felt forced to take a license on whatever terms) may also make prospective licensees feel they should take their chances in court.
“The next Nokia-Samsung announcement, whenever that one may issue, will most likely be a “fish or cut bait” statement. They won’t be talking forever. At some point they will agree or Nokia will sue. I, for my part, would recommend to Samsung (if they asked me, which they obviously don’t) not to overpay.”
“Microsoft also passed Nokia patents to patent trolls like MOSAID (now named Conversant).”So Microsoft loves Linux, right? That’s why it destroyed Nokia after Nokia had ‘dared’ to become a top Linux contributor (almost the number one contributor). Microsoft also passed Nokia patents to patent trolls like MOSAID (now named Conversant).
The report which everyone is likely to cite in the coming days is this one. The Wall Street Journal wrote: “Nokia Corp. expects to gain more than a billion dollars in cash from its intellectual-property portfolio in the next three years, including the proceeds from a patent pact with Samsung Electronics Co. signed more than two years ago.”
Apparently, Nokia wants a lot more money than this. “Nokia is a patent troll now, extorts 1 Billion USD from Samsung,” the FFII’s President wrote this morning. We shall revisit this subject some time later (there are more urgent topics to cover right now). █
“Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won’t say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: “It’s an unsafe neighbourhood, why don’t you pay me 20 bucks and I’ll make sure you’re okay,” that’s illegal. It’s racketeering.”
–Mark Shuttleworth
ᶃ Gemini Space
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