[YBA] i4i vs MS?

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Aug 13, 2009, at 1:14 PM, Shachar Shemesh wrote:

> Where has Microsoft's junk patents given them any money? Unless they  
> are using extortion (possible) to quietly threaten potential FOSS  
> defecties away, that is. They are not selling those, and they have  
> never sued anyone (well, one). It also seems that not many are  
> taking their threats too seriously - we did not exactly see the FOSS  
> world grind to a halt, after all.
>
> If they are not making much money off their silly patents, and they  
> are losing, then their loses outweight their gains.



Or in plain English, you can't.

 From the USPTO website:

	Searching US Patent Collection...

	Results of Search in US Patent Collection db for:
	AN/microsoft: 12062 patents.


You are claiming that with 12062 patents since 1976 assigned to  
Microsoft, the ones that are software related have netted them a total  
of zero or lost them money.

Your are also discounting the the fact that people did not compete due  
to patent protection which may be in the end more valuable than  
licensing fees.

You are also went from claiming software patents to "junk patents".  
Define "junk patent" and explain how the term applies to all, as you  
did, software patents.

The FOSS world exists not because of there are no software patents, it  
exists because people have dedicated their work to the public domain,  
which is a very different thing. IBM has dedicated many of their  
patents to the public domain because they are a hardware marketing  
company, and as the old IBM addage says "nothing sells hardware better  
and faster than software".



Geoff.

-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com