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For more than three years now, Microsoft has held to the line that it has loads of patents that are infringed by Google's Android operating system. "Licensing is the solution," wrote the company's head IP honcho in 2011, explaining Microsoft's decision to sue Barnes & Noble's Android-powered Nook reader.
Microsoft has revealed a few of those patents since as it has unleashed litigation against Android device makers. But for the most part, they've remained secret. That's led to a kind of parlor game where industry observers have speculated about what patents Microsoft might be holding over Android.
That long guessing game is now over. A list of hundreds of patents that Microsoft believes entitle it to royalties over Android phones, and perhaps smartphones in general, has been published on a Chinese language website.
More details are in the story, but too much to include in this summary.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Tuesday June 17 2014, @09:49AM
Weren't these released a couple of years ago by Barnes and Noble when Microsoft screwed up on an NDA? I was under the impression they have been known for a while and are all overly general and obvious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2014, @11:08AM
I do not remember the patents ever being disclosed. B&N, who had absolutely nothing to lose, stood up to Microsoft and would not pay extortion money, and were ready to go to court. Microsoft paid off B&N, who were at the time losing money on the Nook and took the cash, and the case never went to court. At the time, the fact that MS paid off B&N was an indication that these patents would not hold up in court. The situation B&N was in happened to be unique, because most tech companies have other relationships with MS that could be damaged by a suit, but B&N didn't because it's not a tech company.
I think the main patent was the FAT32 file system. Most Android devices don't have SD cards now and don't use FAT32, so there must be other patents. Most of them seem inane, like "method for putting colored pixels on a mobile device's screen".
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday June 17 2014, @02:27PM
Sounds like a good excuse to switch to UDF or ext2 or something. Obviously they don't want people to use FAT32...
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Informative) by aitmanga on Tuesday June 17 2014, @03:49PM
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.