Re: Microsoft's IP chief on TomTom, Linux and patents ..

[amicus_curious]

"Doug Mentohl" <doug_mentohl@linuxmail.org> wrote in message 
news:gogicp$985$1@news.datemas.de...
> 7 wrote:
>
> > This is the first shot in their patent war.
>
> Not really, more like SCO 11 ...
>
> "Assertions are year-long, or two years long. Maybe Microsoft wanted to 
> buy TomTom, but they didn't want to sell. So they started asserting 
> patents, hoping to encourage them to at least only license Microsoft 
> operating systems. That didn't work, so they sued."
>
> "It is not beneath a monopolist to put all these pieces together and look 
> to take advantage of a situation."
>
> http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4186728102.html

Well that is a rather biased view of the matter, to be sure.  If the 
Microsoft patents read on the Tom-Tom product, they have the right to demand 
a license.  They have licensed Tom-Tom competitors, it seems, so the most 
likely story is that they just want their well-deserved income.