Microsoft Spends Two Patent Attacks on Linux in a Week

Last week, many media outlets wrote about Microsoft’s wonderful open source initiatives — the announcement of SQL Server for Linux , the release of the OS for Debian-based networking devices (which is actually a replay of old news ), and the entry into the Eclipse Foundation .

By chance or not, but these events overshadowed themselves and ignored other Microsoft initiatives that do not look so charming at all. This is an agreement with Acer to preinstall Microsoft programs under the threat of a patent lawsuit, as well as an attempt to patent a technology that is already implemented in Ubuntu. "Microsoft loves Linux so much that it strangles it to death with patent claims, while the media do not pay attention, but instead say that Microsoft is now" friends "with GNU / Linux," TechRights commented on the situation.

Thanks to patents, Microsoft has turned the operating Android into its “cash cow” and annually receives about $ 3 billion from 74 manufacturers of Android devices, Samsung alone pays Microsoftbillion dollars a year . HTC, General Dynamics, Wistron, Onkyo, Acer, ViewSonic and many others pay Microsoft $ 5-10 for each Android device sold . Under the threat of litigation, manufacturers that release Android devices agree to Microsoft terms, including preinstalling Microsoft programs on their smartphones and tablets, as happened with Acer last week .

The Redmond corporation has been trying to crank out approximately the same scheme with Linux since 2006 (patent lawsuit against Novell). Litigation traditionally takes place behind closed doors, and transactions are concluded on NDA terms.

“This is extortion,” said Mark Shuttleworth (Canonical founder) a few years ago, “and we should call a spade a spade ... We cannot be drawn into this game.” Later, he also said: “Microsoft demands to pay them for patents, but does not say which ones. If a guy comes into the store and says: “This is a dangerous area, why don’t you pay me 20 bucks and I guarantee that everything will be in order”, this is illegal. This is a racket. ”

The situation is aggravated by the fact that Microsoft is not shy about borrowing ideas from GNU / Linux (in this case, from Ubuntu) and patenting them, posing as their inventions. Microsoft has now filed a patent application for Continuum technologyconvergence of a smartphone with peripheral devices - a monitor, keyboard, mouse - wirelessly, as in Ubuntu Phone. One can only hope that the patent office will detect the presence of prior art. Otherwise, Microsoft will have another weapon in its portfolio for blackmailing Linux device developers.

Actually, the remaining patents from the Microsoft portfolio are about the same plan. Despite transactions on NDA terms, in 2011, the list of Android patents that Microsoft presented against Barnes & Nobles was publicly available. Android tablet manufacturer Nook. Microsoft lawyers then said that their company owns more than 60 thousand patents. However, they presented ten directly to this case.

• US patent No. 5,778,372 ("patent 372") entitled "Remote receipt and control of the display of an electronic document with embedded images" (images in a browser), paragraphs 1 and 5 are filed against Nook and Nook Color
• US Patent No. 5,889,522 (“Patent 522”) entitled “Managing Child Windows in a System” (Tabs in Windows), Clauses 1, 2, and 12 are filed against Nook Color
• US patent No. 6,891,551 (“Patent 551”) entitled “Selecting Elements in the Editing Process of Electronic Documents” (clicking with the mouse or clicking on the touchscreen selects a fragment of text, after which the selected fragment is highlighted), paragraphs 1-3, 5 and 7- 11 brought against Nook and Nook Color
• US patent No. 6,957,233 ("patent 233") entitled "Method and apparatus for obtaining and rendering annotations for immutable electronic content", paragraphs 21 and 22 are presented against Nook Color
• US Patent No. 6,339,780 (“780 Patent”) entitled “Download Status in a Hypermedia Browser with a Limited Display Area” (normal download status, scalable), paragraphs 1-6, 9-14, 17-26 and 29-42 are filed against Nook
• US Patent No. 5,579,517 (“Patent 517”) entitled “ Naming System for Long and Short File Names,” Paragraph 1 filed against Nook
• US Patent No. 5,652,913 (“Patent 913”) entitled “System for Providing Inter-Communication I / O Access Factors in Shared Data Structures with Shared File System and Device Driver,” Paragraph 23 brought against Nook
• US Patent No. 5,758,352 (“Patent 352”) entitled “ Naming System for Long and Short File Names”, no specific claims filed
• US patent No. 6,791,536 ("patent 536") entitled "Simulating gestures on a control device using a stylus and receiving feedback", paragraph 14 is filed against Nook
• US patent No. 6,897,853 ("patent 853") entitled "High-level active input matrix for the GUI", paragraph 7 filed against Nook

Barnes & Nobles considers all these patents "trivial, both in terms of commercial importance and in terms of suitability for patenting." The company's specialists give a detailed comment on each of the patents. For example, in the case of “patent 372” for downloading images in a web browser, they remind of the existence of the Netscape Navigator 2.0b3 browser, where it was implemented (prior art). In the case of the “522 patent” for tabs in the operating system, they give an example of a programming guide for the OS / 2 2.0 operating system, which describes such tabs. Annotations for electronic documents from Patent 233 are described two years earlier (1997) in the Adobe Acrobat Software User Guide. And so on for the rest of the patents.

But tactics bring effect.

Last week Microsoftupdated the license agreement with Wistron, according to which it is obliged to make payments from each tablet, smartphone, electronic reader or other device running Android or Chrome OS. Such transactions not only bring additional profit to Microsoft without much effort, but also artificially increase the cost of gadgets with OS based on the Linux kernel.

Microsoft conducts patent litigation through a subsidiary of Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC, which operates in the best tradition of patent trolls. Last week , another cross-licensing patent agreement was announced , this time with the Japanese company Rakuten Inc., The terms of the transaction are confidential, but it affects "Linux and Android devices."

At the same time, the mass media continue to write aboutThe "new Microsoft", which is friends with Linux , with almost no mention of Microsoft's massive attack on GNU / Linux with patent claims.

Regarding Microsoft’s latest open source initiatives, including the release of SQL Server for Linux, TechRights writes : “Microsoft insists that Linux is its intellectual property in the courts. Now she’s acting like Linux is her property. ”