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Experts Cast Doubt On Microsoft's Patent Claims
News Microsoft's accusation that the open-source software industry has infringed 235 Microsoft patents has spotlighted a difficult issue: how aggressively should a company police itself for patent violations?
[May 16, 2007, 16:50]
Microsoft Denies Ballmer Linux 'warning'
News At the Microsoft's Asian Government Leaders Forum in Singapore, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said that Linux violates more than 228 patents and that companies will be at risk of legal action if they use Linux, according to Reuters.
[November 23, 2004, 16:05]
Microsoft Walks The Patent Tightrope
News In just the past month, Microsoft has applied for patents in Europe and elsewhere to cover how XML-based documents are created in the company's dominant Word software. The basic XML description is freely published and open to anyone, but the...
[February 4, 2004, 9:00]
Lawyer: Microsoft Patent Claims Won't Affect UK
News Microsoft's claims that open-source software infringes its patents do not apply in the UK, according to a top lawyer. Microsoft has said it will not sue for now over the patents, which it has not revealed by name.
[September 14, 2007, 12:45]
FFII Slams EC Taskforce Over Software Patents
News The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) claimed the report into intellectual property rights (IPR), which recommended the use of software patents by small firms, was written almost entirely by the patent industry and large...
[November 29, 2006, 13:48]
Microsoft May Become 'major Opponent Of Patents'
News Microsoft has been a major proponent of software patents, securing some 3,000 over the last 20 years but open source experts now claim that far from profiting from the system, the software maker may actually become a victim.
[October 6, 2005, 13:35]
Microsoft: Open Source Violates 235 Patents
News Microsoft claims that free and open-source software violates more than 230 of its patents, according to a magazine report published on Sunday. A 2004 study by Open Source Risk Management, a company selling insurance against the risks of using open...
[May 14, 2007, 9:56]
Microsoft Loses File-system Patent Claims
News The US Patent Office has rejected two Microsoft patents over the FAT file format, but the software maker said on Wednesday it's not ready to give up its battle to protect the widely used method for storing data.
[October 6, 2005, 9:05]
Microsoft Hit With $521m Explorer Fine
News A federal court in Chicago has ruled that Microsoft must pay $521m (£325m) to a Web technology company and the University of California, after finding that the software giant's Internet Explorer infringed on their patents.
[August 12, 2003, 8:45]
Linux Users Could Face European Patent Threat
News Microsoft has claimed that Linux and other open-source software infringes 235 of its patents. Linux users in the UK could face a greater threat from Microsoft than previously thought, but experts agree that British open-source users are in far less...
[September 19, 2007, 17:34]
.Net And XP Hit By Patent Suit
News InterTrust Technologies, which makes software that protects songs and videos from being illegally copied, said Thursday that it has added three patents to its lawsuit against Microsoft. InterTrust has made seven patents a part of its suit against...
[October 19, 2001, 9:31]
EC Threatens Microsoft With More Fines
News In a damning statemement, the EC claimed that the protocols "lack significant innovation", even though Microsoft has been awarded patents on much of the technology in question. US and European patent offices have awarded Microsoft more than 36...
[March 1, 2007, 14:44]
Microsoft Defeat Stirs Patent Concerns
News Eolas originally filed suit against Microsoft in 1999, alleging that the software giant infringed on its patents when enabling the Internet Explorer Web browser to use plug-ins and applets. Microsoft has in the past attacked the open-source...
[August 14, 2003, 14:55]
Microsoft Faces Second Patent Claim
News In that suit, InterTrust claims Microsoft violated its patents by including anti-copying technology similar to InterTrust's in its software for storing and playing music and video files on a personal computer.
[June 27, 2001, 10:46]
Row Erupts Over Software Patent Directive
News The European Commission's directive on software patents has come under severe criticism for bowing to the needs of big business at the expense of small software developers and consumers. Current EU regulations are supposed to stop patents being...
[February 21, 2002, 16:50]
Microsoft Will Not Sue Over Linux Patents
News The infringement allegations, made by Microsoft in a Fortune magazine article, were that free and open-source software violated more than 230 of its patents. Microsoft has so far refused to specify which patents are allegedly being infringed by...
[May 21, 2007, 11:16]
OSDL Says Patent Threat To Linux Is Receding
News There's always been a suspicion that some of them [the alleged infringing patents] were held by Microsoft, so this could be an issue," said Cohen. Florian Mueller, a campaigner against software patents, disputes Cohen's claim that Patent Commons...
[November 16, 2005, 14:45]
Torvalds Attacks Microsoft Over Open Source
News Microsoft has claimed that open-source software violates 235 of its patents, but says it will not sue open-source users at the moment. As well as making assertions over patents, Microsoft has also caused a stir in the open-source world by forming...
[August 13, 2007, 18:05]
Microsoft's Open Source Mind Shift
News Microsoft's decision to not enforce patents on Web services standards underscores the growing acceptance of core open source tenets. But the promise not to assert patents could be… extended from current Web services standards, said Michael Jones...
[September 15, 2006, 14:20]
Net Patent Could Derail Tech Titans
News The payout in the game could be sizable, and Northrup isn't the only contender coming forward to claim that Microsoft is infringing on patents as the software giant moves to launch its .Net services. Microsoft denied the original claims and has...
[October 30, 2001, 9:01]
