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The warning sound of TomTom

Leader ZDNet.co.uk | February 27, 2009 9:05 AM PST

Summary

If the patents at the heart of Microsoft's action against TomTom are the best the company can do, little wonder the company has declined to identify those at the heart of its Linux threats.
Commentary--If the patents at the heart of Microsoft's action against TomTom are the best the company can do, little wonder the company has declined to identify those at the heart of its Linux threats.

The TomTom claims cover such things as a multitasking computer on which you can run programs, in a car. A wireless internet-connected computer, in a car. And how to create long file names in the MS-DOS filing system — a fix introduced in Windows 95 because MS-DOS is a direct descendent of 1974's vintage 8-bit CP/M operating system. A direct descendant? More a bastard child: MS-DOS helped itself freely to many of CP/M's design concepts, in some detail.

But those were the days when Bill Gates could say that software patents had the potential to put the industry at "a complete standstill" and with good reason. If the sort of protection Microsoft now claims for itself had been available to CP/M then, Microsoft would never have created its monopoly, nor amassed a fraction of its power.

See also:

Now it has, the rules have changed. Microsoft is perfectly happy, while proclaiming openness and interoperability, to find a company in dire financial straits and then threaten it with expensive legal action over what any self-respecting programmer would identify as a hackish kludge — something that advances the art of computer software not one bit.

Microsoft has taken an interesting path to the point where it now finds itself comfortable reducing the rest of the industry to that "complete standstill". When it first decided in 2003 that its FAT filing system should be licensed, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith told us that revenue generation wasn't the idea: "Fundamentally, that's not why we are doing this. We are doing this to work better and promote better collaboration with the industry."

We can talk all day as to whether this is an attack on Linux (Microsoft denies this while repeatedly citing the OS in its claims), an attempt to frighten others into settling without going to court to test the patents, or a cynical move, driving TomTom into the ground to facilitate a purchase. Working better and promoting better collaboration, however, is not on the menu.

The patent system is not just broken, it is poisonous. It works by fear, using the civil courts as cudgels in the hands of bullies. In the process, it despoils its main purpose: what valid, proportionate claims Microsoft may have in the rest of its case against TomTom hardly matter.

Everything in this case is a perversion of how intellectual property should be used, commercialized and shared. We salute TomTom for standing firm, and urge the rest of the industry to find and stick to a fairer, more sensible way of dealing with shared IP.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet.co.uk.

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Sinner? Business is business
alec.wood@... 4th Mar 2009
But surely that's in a way the duty of any business under the capitalist free-market system. It's for the law makers to prevent this "abuse", not for businesses to distract themselves from profit making and strengthening their market position with issues of morality.
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As my grandmother used to say...
IT_Guy_z 27th Feb 2009
..."there's nothing worse than a reformed sinner."
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Granny is partly right
Sagax- 27th Feb 2009
While I agree with "Granny", I question whether Microsoft is at all "reformed". I have watched since M$ usurped CP/M and DR DOS. They have come through "co-operative" ventures such as Win95/OS2 and driven onwards and upwards. As their upward progress stalls, they appear to want to step upon the heads of others whenever they can get away with it. They have been stopped by the demonstration of "prior technology" before. It rightly should happen again in this case.
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Sinner? Business is business
alec.wood@... 4th Mar 2009
But surely that's in a way the duty of any business under the capitalist free-market system. It's for the law makers to prevent this "abuse", not for businesses to distract themselves from profit making and strengthening their market position with issues of morality.
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If someone will point me...
Feral Urchin 27th Feb 2009
..to Tom Tom's defense fund, I'll make a contribution.
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to infringe on another company's patent?

Ask your employer if they would agree with you, and see if you are still employed there come Monday morning.
Ask your employer if they would agree with you, and see if you are still employed there come Monday morning.
allready, without hearing the facts or issues in court, that Microsoft is in the wrong, so any argument would be pointless as you have already chosen who is "right".

So I will modify the statement accordingly:

I guess you believe that it is acceptable to honor patents unless they are Microsoft's patents, then it is OK to infringe on them.

Where we live, we would label you a "hypocrite".
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I would give you the middle finger
InAction Man 27th Feb 2009
But I fear m$ has patented it. I can't afford to mess up with their innovations.
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Finally!
MGP2 27th Feb 2009
You know, InAction Man, you finally said something funny. I actually laughed out loud at that one. Now, what I wanna know is, who are you and what did you do with the REAL InAction Man? devil
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I believe you mean "hippocrite"
MGP2 Updated - 27th Feb 2009
Where we live, we would label you a "hypocrite".

hippocrite: Hypocrosy of hippopotamus proportions.

Anyone old enough to remember "sniglets"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniglet
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Then, anyone who gives them a middle finger is automatically obligated to write them a royalty check. Pretty soon they would have the whole word working for them, night and day.
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i hate hypocrites.
Been_Done_Before 27th Feb 2009
MS is one of them. So are most people when it suites their needs.
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Wrong wrong wrong....
Mike Cox 27th Feb 2009
TomTom has stolen valuable IP from Microsoft. The VFAT filesystem is elegant and refined and was the cornerstone of such wonders as Windows 95. How dare ANYONE interfere with Microsoft's ability to innovate. How can we expect Microsoft to continue to deliver such stellar releases as Windows 7 if the risk of someone just stealing their code is not addressed. I for one only use Windows powered GPS devices and believe the future of GPS will be a device where one can use SharePoint to program the device.
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Patent threats are all MS has left
epitax 27th Feb 2009
Why make a better product when you can use patent threats? Probably because that's all that is left of MS. Cross-licensing patents is the only way that MS can see to retain customers in the face of real competition from Linux.

Mike, you might want to watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YExl9ojclo

It's instructive on the course of events since the Novell-MS agreement.

So keep astro-turfing, Mike. It makes for great entertainment.
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OMG I'm going to vomit...
Grayson Peddie Updated - 28th Feb 2009
Baaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrfffffffffffffffffff!!!!!!
http://www.nextdaypets.com/images/smilie/spew.gif

ROFLMAO!!!
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RE: The warning sound of TomTom
chromeronin Updated - 1st Mar 2009
This is where petents just dont seem to make sense. I mean
really, if you have a specific way of implimenting a wireless
computer in a car, then I'm sure that design might be unique
and worth protecting, but just the idea of something as self
evident as a computer in a car? Come on. Who granted that
as a patent. That like patenting the idea of using hot burning
logs to heat food!
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RE: The warning sound of TomTom
wildpig 3rd Mar 2009
unbelievable the patents are
"vehicle computer system on OPEN platform" and "generating driving instructions" .. why dont MS just go all out and patent "making bread" and sue the whole world.

I wonder who allows such broad sweeping patents? and by definition "open platform" shouldnt be allowed in a patent.
this article just convinced me to buy iMac
Shane
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You two perfectly illustrate
alec.wood@... 4th Mar 2009
You two perfectly illustrate why this has happened. You both begin name calling from entrenched positions established long before the case was brought, and in that you focus purely on the symptom and not it's underlying cause.

The real issue is surely not the infringement of the patent, but rather if the patent has any validity at all. It was said above that Microsoft could patent making bread and sue us all - except the gluten intolerant perhaps - but it's by no means an exaggeration that the US patent office would quite happily grant a patent on virtually any imaginary future technology no matter how broad ranging that application is. Using energy to move matter (as in teleportation) probably already patented in the US, similarly faster than light travel, time machines etc.

Now if a private individual patents some idea that later becomes a new technology he's labelled a "patent troll" but if a US company does it they're an "innovator".

It's absolute rubbish, if the patent is for an idea that is nothing more than a future guess at how technology might progress then it should be thrown out, if it's too general it should be referred back to be specific. In the UK the patent office say you can only patent something which actually exists in some form or other.

It's really time the US patent office grew some balls and practised the art of saying "no (be more specific)" and then we might find this whole stifling of innovation vs patent trolling debate can finally be dissipated into history.
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RE: The warning sound of TomTom
alec.wood@... Updated - 4th Mar 2009
doh! wrong button

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