Misplaced? [LWN.net]

Misplaced?

Posted Oct 12, 2007 17:00 UTC (Fri) by dwheeler (guest, #1216)
In reply to: An additional note by corbet
Parent article: Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Red Hat and Novell - Just Like Ballmer Predicted (Groklaw)

I wouldn't be so sure. Several top execs came straight from Microsoft, just before this suit was filed. Perhaps even more tellingly, Novell and Red Hat are named in the suit, while Microsoft is not. Microsoft may have a "deal" with Novell, but Microsoft has a strong financial incentive to arrange attacks on Novell by others. And of course, Microsoft has explicitly said for years that patents were how they planned to attack OSS. So we have motive, method, and opportunity; perhaps the patent troll and Microsoft are unrelated, but I would not presume it.

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Misplaced?

Posted Oct 12, 2007 18:30 UTC (Fri) by sepreece (subscriber, #19270) [Link]

"Microsoft has explicitly said for years that patents were how they planned to attack OSS"

I would have said that they attacked by suggesting that they had IP that Linux seemed to violate, thus raising questions about whether it was safe to use Linux. I don't remember them ever saying that they would pursue those patents, though. [If I have forgotten such a statement, I apologize.]

Misplaced?

Posted Oct 12, 2007 23:31 UTC (Fri) by AJWM (guest, #15888) [Link]

"Using patents to attack FOSS" doesn't necessarily mean that Microsoft would use Microsoft's patents to attack FOSS.

Indeed, it would be a strategic move on Microsoft's part not to do so - a direct lawsuit by Microsoft would trigger retaliatory patent lawsuits by others, and Microsoft has something to lose there. Patent trolls don't.

War by proxy is nothing new; the superpowers engaged in it during the Cold War when the threat of nuclear retaliation precluded a direct attack. The "mutual assured destruction" of a direct patent war between two or large companies who actually produce something (vs patent trolls) has been raised before.