AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal) [LWN.net]

The Wall Street Journal is running a short article about a patent deal between AOL and Microsoft. "AOL Inc. agreed Monday to sell more than 800 patents and related products to Microsoft Corp. for $1.1 billion, as the struggling online company looks to raise fresh cash while fighting a boardroom showdown with an activist shareholder." (Thanks to Martin Jeppesen)

Update: this article has more information, including a list of some of the patents involved.

AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Apr 9, 2012 23:56 UTC (Mon) by gioele (subscriber, #61675) [Link] (1 responses)

It looks like that what AOL has sold to Microsoft is in fact Netscape and its patent portfolio: <https://allthingsd.com/20120409/attention-marc-andreessen...>.

What an end to the first browsers war.

AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Apr 11, 2012 3:26 UTC (Wed) by scientes (guest, #83068) [Link]

and if any of them are used against Mozilla as is suggested below....what irony that would be.

AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Apr 10, 2012 1:23 UTC (Tue) by Tashlan (guest, #17277) [Link] (2 responses)

My question is, do any of these patents threaten Mozilla?

AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Apr 10, 2012 4:43 UTC (Tue) by klbrun (subscriber, #45083) [Link] (1 responses)

If they do, then it is past time to rewrite Mozilla...

AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Apr 11, 2012 0:36 UTC (Wed) by kripkenstein (guest, #43281) [Link]

The Mozilla codebase is constantly being rewritten and updated anyhow.

However, removing the older code might have the opposite effect here. Mozilla files contain a license grant from Netscape, which implies a license to Netscape patents. Using that code makes you safer, not less safe.

AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Apr 10, 2012 10:27 UTC (Tue) by Uraeus (guest, #33755) [Link] (1 responses)

Wouldn't be surprised if there are agreements in place stopping these patents to be used against Firefox, they could pose a threat to Chrome/Android though, which is why Microsoft was willing to pay so much. Can't help to get worried everytime I see Microsoft buying patents, they are clearly past their prime and trying to kill competition with patents seems to be their new mode of operation.

AOL Unloads Patents to Microsoft (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Apr 10, 2012 11:59 UTC (Tue) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

Watch out for the Yahoo fallout then: commentators are already suggestion that it should sell its search-related patents.

Lucky that Free software is not endangered this time around (at least immediately).