Tomtom countersues Microsoft

[Sealbhach]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/249844/tomtom-hits-back-at-microsoft.html

Wow!! This one is going to go all the way to the wire!:popcorn:

Good for Tomtom, I'm glad they're not going to roll over like Lexmark have just done.


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[Tristam Green]

duplicate topic:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1101332

[ddrichardson]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/249844/tomtom-hits-back-at-microsoft.html

Wow!! This one is going to go all the way to the wire!:popcorn:

Good for Tomtom, I'm glad they're not going to roll over like Lexmark have just done.


.
I'm glad TomTom are fighting but I would have like to see a case defended on its own merits rather than a counter suit for patent infringement.

I also think that as a community we need to be careful how we react because it might not be the warning shot over Linux patent infringement allegations that many of think it is. Microsoft have been pushing for royalties on this for quite some time now.

For anyone who missed the start of this, LWN (http://lwn.net/Articles/320737/) has a very good article. There are eight patents involved and the ones that might involve us are this one (http://www.google.com/patents?id=cLAkAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,579,517) and this one (http://www.google.com/patents?id=cLAkAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,579,517), which both relate to the Fat32 file system.

The patents are reasonably specific as these things go and its not a case of Microsoft suing because they used it with OSS but because they are using their (alleged) IP to make a profit without Microsoft's involvement.

The complaint is available here (http://media.techflash.com/documents/tomtomComplaint.pdf).