Microsoft Alleges Android Patent Infringement by Nook eReader

[Ric_NYC]

Microsoft has taken legal action against Barnes & Noble, and its Android manufacturing partners, with both the International Trade Commission and the US District Court of the Western District of Washington. The case against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn, and Inventec alleges that the Android-based Barnes & Noble Nook and Nook Color devices infringe on patents held by Microsoft.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/222711/microsoft_alleges_android_patent_infringement_by_n ook_ereader.html

[sdowney717]

Microsoft says the Nook, which uses Google Inc.'s Android software, steps on patented technology for opening a separate window to help make navigating content easier.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9M3QP3G0.htm

MS wants to dominate the law courts.
Of course it is threatened and MS has the bucks to do this and perhaps stifle further innovations.

[Cracklepop]

No new products with any similarities to existing products please.
Thanks.

[gnumbr]

I take my previous comment back. eBooks DRM or not, this is bad news.

[arvevans]

Is this a sideways attack on Linux and Unix X-windows and also on multi-tab browsers like Firefox? It seems that Microsoft may be trying to overwhelm a small outfit (Barnes & Noble) in order to set a precedent that could then be used to attack windowing software and tabbed screens on all non-Microsoft systems.

[disabledaccount]

Is this a sideways attack on Linux and Unix X-windows and also on multi-tab browsers like Firefox? It seems that Microsoft may be trying to overwhelm a small outfit (Barnes & Noble) in order to set a precedent that could then be used to attack windowing software and tabbed screens on all non-Microsoft systems.This old and serious problem with interpretation of law around patents. Personally I think today's implementation of patents is messed at its roots - nobody should be able to stop others to get same results using different ways. In other words patents should only protect technical know-how. Lets imagine that someone will restrict idea of motor - the device that can transform chemical or electrical energy into mechanical power. Nobody else can built any kind of motor without infringement "patent" for motor - that would be stupid and every one knows that.
What about WINE - this is in fact rewritten MS Windows API, with the difference that MS version is wrapper to MS kernel and driver layer, while wine is wrapper to Linux/Unix/Mac kernel and driver layer - why MS don't sue CodeWeavers? - they didn't use even single line of MS source code but they cloned idea of windows API

Life is brutal - if you have enough money, then You can buy justice for You - unless You meet opponent of comparable size or who is invisible in the underground.

[weasel fierce]

It gets pretty hard to explain why a patent like that, should it be valid, is actually helping innovation and research in any way whatsoever.

[cprofitt]

With any luck Barnes and Noble can find prior art or make the same argument as was made in the Bilski case... and then this patent will be removed from the world.

[note32]

seems like a money issue to me, its funny because Microsoft isn't going after Google or android OS their going after the vendors

[piquat]

I wonder if google is going to step into this? If not openly, in the background, supplying money or legal expertise.

[jwbrase]

Is this a sideways attack on Linux and Unix X-windows and also on multi-tab browsers like Firefox? It seems that Microsoft may be trying to overwhelm a small outfit (Barnes & Noble) in order to set a precedent that could then be used to attack windowing software and tabbed screens on all non-Microsoft systems.

Barnes & Noble is hardly a "small outfit".

[disabledaccount]

I've just Googled ( :tongue: ) some of "unique technology" patents - here You have one: THE SELECTION HANDLES:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,891,551.PN.&OS=PN/6,891,551&RS=PN/6,891,551

and one more:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F6128007

So I think my example patent for motor is incomplete, it should be:
Assignee: First-Motor. Inc
Motor:
A device or some other thing that potentially could be considered a device, that can output mechanical power using two methods: left and right. The selection between methods can be made either by switch or by voice command or by commanding gesture. We have completely no idea how to efficiently implement direction changing in DSP-based AC servo controller, but if such controller would have a direction switch or microphone, then its inventor is considered using proprietry patented technology. OUR BRILLIANT TECHNOLOGY and we'll sue him.

:LOL:

[LowSky]

Barnes & Noble is hardly a "small outfit".

Barnes & Noble might look big but look at its finances. It's doing barely okay. Look at Borders the company was a huge company that fell due to staggering debt. Just a few months ago there were rumors of Borders buying B&N, now look at them. The Nook Color saved B&N much like the eMac saved Apple.

[gnomeuser]

With any luck Barnes and Noble can find prior art or make the same argument as was made in the Bilski case... and then this patent will be removed from the world.

At the, likely, huge cost of a lawsuit that is just showing that the system is designed wrong. I believe this will be settled, it is simply cheaper for both companies. It is in reality a legal shakedown, nobody can afford to prove prior art.

Ah software patents, don't you just love them.

Regardless, a lot of bad news for Android lately, but I suspect it is to be expected. Once you have a success, everyone wants part of the pie.

[ade234uk]

I really don't understand this patent rubbish, but this makes me hate Microsoft more than I already do.

As long as we have an alternative like Ubuntu, Libre Office, Firefox, Chrome that's all I need.

[khelben1979]

Hmm... software patents. Don't they have more important things to do? Like improving Windows so they won't loose all their users to the other side, perhaps? :-k

[alexan]

I can't see what else Microsoft could do: they only survive on monopolistic basis. So far now the only product they did manage to keep in a fair challenge is the xbox

"microsoft on mobile" so far now failed in many ways. And since the "mobile market" is something you can't refuse they play in the only way they are used to: dirty.

[cloyd]

I don't like microsoft much. Kinda like I don't like Walmart much (used to work for them). Sometimes I must trade with both of them . . . sometimes there is nobody else with what I must have.

Barnes and Noble is my favorite bookseller. They get me the books I want when I want them . . . in the store or ordered online. Would FSF help them? I realize that open source and free software are different things . . . but they have much in common and should help each other. Is there any other organization that could help?

I think I could be very seriously motivated to contribute to a group actively joining in to fight Microsoft's legal challenges in issues such as this.

[sydbat]

I really don't understand this patent rubbishThat's because software patents only exist in the US. The rest of the world is (for the moment at least) smarter than that...

[barbedsaber]

a guy who builds a nice chair doesn't owe money to everyone who ever has built a chair.

From the social network.

[Chronon]

From the social network.

Yeah, but that would be considered a trivial innovation anyway; thus unprotected by patent.

With software patents it's not a machine or a piece of technology that is being patented. The patents effectively prohibit using a given machine in a certain way. It seems a bit akin to restricting what people can do with a hammer.

[koenn]

"a guy who builds a nice chair doesn't owe money to everyone who ever has built a chair." -- From the social network.
But if a that guy patents his nice chair, the next guy who builds a similar chair might owe money to the first one
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/D408165.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/D408165.pdf

[clanky]

I really don't understand this patent rubbish, but this makes me hate Microsoft more than I already do.

Surely hating someone over something which you "really don't understand" is not very clever?

[jennybrew]

The real problem here isnt Microsoft. Its the US legal system and, sorry guys, the eagerness of people in the US to go to court.
Its a cultural problem ...for God's sake stop it! ... and its a systemic problem .. fix it!
The answer is really in your own hands. Lobby your MPs (whatever the American name is) and press for changes in the law.
People power can prevail.

[cloyd]

The real problem here isnt Microsoft. Its the US legal system and, sorry guys, the eagerness of people in the US to go to court.
Its a cultural problem ...for God's sake stop it! ... and its a systemic problem .. fix it!
The answer is really in your own hands. Lobby your MPs (whatever the American name is) and press for changes in the law.
People power can prevail.

Ah, yes. Some of us are aware of this fact. It is systemic. (MP in US equals "congressman" or woman). It is hard to change. There are those among us who know. I come from a small town, whose downtown main street is lined with attorney's offices. There seems to be more attorneys than businesses. Still, it is lucrative.

The systemic nature makes it very hard, but not impossible, to change