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Microsoft: We won't sue over future OOXML versions
News The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) recently warned that patent protections would only cover current, not future, versions of the specification, drawing attention to Microsoft's wording of the OSP: "New versions of previously covered...
[March 28, 2008, 7:13]
Kill the patents, kill the problem
Leader The open-source community was not impressed by some of those issues, consisting as they did of Microsoft's unsubstantiated claims of Linux's software-patent infringement. The fact that Microsoft could see a high-profile and costly deal with an open...
[May 29, 2007, 17:19]
Microsoft adds IP indemnity to Linux fight
Talkback Loophole #1 "(ii) code or materials provided by you as part of service deliverables" This would effectively still indemnify Microsoft against most of the Timeline Inc patent claims, as it is the developer/end user's code ( even visual basic code...
[November 10, 2004, 9:13]
Red Hat: Software patents slow innovation
News Microsoft would like to arrange patent licensing deals in one way or another, as it did in 2006 with Linux seller Novell. Instead, he urged reform of the patent process. Szulik's patent reform agenda includes a better searchable database, a...
[May 23, 2007, 9:53]
Microsoft's licence to kill
Leader This says that in exchange for lots of money, you can look at the documents and implement the protocols - crucially, including details covered by "claims of a patent or patent application that are necessarily infringed by implementing the...
[March 18, 2005, 12:15]
RIM coughs up for JPEG patent
News Forgent sued Microsoft for patent infringement in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in April after Microsoft went to court asking for a declaratory judgment that it didn't infringe the Forgent patent.
[October 28, 2005, 8:45]
W3C investigates threat to HTML
News The Eolas patent has stirred up the Web since a federal district court jury slapped Microsoft and its Internet Explorer browser with a $521m (£315m) patent infringement judgment, one of the largest in history.
[September 25, 2003, 13:00]
Microsoft denies Ballmer Linux 'warning'
Talkback And that there was no court case so far does not mean that there has been no litigation or that no developer was threatened because of possible patent infringement. As such the whole software patent thing is something like a small group of dealers...
[November 25, 2004, 20:22]
Patent fight holds up Web standards
News That has patent and royalty critics up in arms, helping mire a committee searching for consensus in an impasse earlier this month. One high-profile patent controversy has been Apple's reluctance to include the MPEG-4 specification in its software...
[July 11, 2002, 14:01]
Microsoft lawyer: Open-source war is over
News In an effort to help head off patent disputes, Microsoft is an investor in Nathan Myrhvold's patent-buying Intellectual Ventures effort and has also made deals with several other such patent companies.
[October 20, 2008, 11:49]
Apple pays out over iTunes patent
News Previously, E-Data sued and settled with Microsoft, as well as a handful of other companies, largely under European patent rules. It has now launched a new round of patent infringement suits against 14 companies including Amazon.com and The New...
[August 5, 2004, 9:50]
Microsoft signs confidential IP deal over NTFS
News When asked whether there were patent issues with NTFS, Välimäki said: "Microsoft has never publically said anything about patent issues with NTFS. Tuxera, the Finnish company behind open-source file system NTFS-3G, has announced a confidential...
[August 26, 2009, 14:38]
Stallman touts GPLv3 provisions
News Another threat that GPLv3 resists is that of patent deals like the one between Novell and Microsoft, Stallman said. The deal offers Novell's customers rather limited protection from Microsoft patents," he said, adding that GPLv3 is designed to...
[June 4, 2007, 10:25]
That ain't roses ya'll smelling!
Talkback I read the patent. Not only is the judge in the case an idiot, the patent office examiner is one as well. What's really annoying is that by the patent's design, if you make a program that scans ANY file and records a string of formatting attributes...
[August 18, 2009, 9:33]
Microsoft publishes more protocol documentation
News For those protocols that may be covered by a Microsoft patent, the company will make patent licences available at low royalty rates. The third phase, which will occur by the end of June, will be the posting of the final versions of the...
[April 9, 2008, 8:45]
Irish developers protest against patents
News Anti-patent campaigner Florian Mueller said in an earlier interview that Ireland is dependent on the taxes of pro-patent multinationals such as Microsoft and therefore has a vested interest in the outcome of the patent directive.
[March 17, 2005, 17:20]
Killing Microsoft Word not our goal, says i4i
News The patent involved in its suit against Microsoft was filed in 1994 and granted in 1998. It's obviously a material verdict by US patent verdict [standards], but we think it is fair," he said. One of the company's biggest projects was the 2001...
[August 13, 2009, 10:45]
Burning the Ships review
Reviews Burning the Ships, written by Phelps and David Kline, co-author of Rembrandts in the Attic and several other books on technology and corporate intellectual property, tells the story of both Phelps's tenure at Microsoft and the reinvention of a...
[April 3, 2009, 11:38]
Linux buoys up Novell earnings
News Buss said Novell's relationship with Microsoft was also a factor in the company remaining afloat, as increased interoperability and lack of Microsoft patent threats to Novell were attractive to businesses.
[August 28, 2009, 15:28]
Next-to-last GPL 3 draft due this week
News One reason for the delay was the announcement of a patent deal between Microsoft and Linux seller Novell under which Microsoft agreed not to sue Novell Linux customers for patent infringement. We felt it was important to fully discuss a few...
[March 27, 2007, 9:14]
