Foot In Mouth

Foot In Mouth

The trouble for Microsoft is that now that Guiterrez has indicated that they have a list of 235 patents, patent law requires them to make infringers aware of patent violations or those infringers have limited liablility. Before, Ballmer used to make vague stammering statements to the effect of "we know they violate some of our patents" -- I assume this was under legal advice, because as long as you plead ignorance about which patents are being violated by what, you can still claim later when you sue someone that you had a good reason not to inform the violator of the violation (i.e., you didn't know).

Now that M$ has admitted they know what violations are there, they have to inform the patent violators or they will not have given the violators a chance to correct their behavior -- which is looked upon very badly by courts.