patent

Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's intellectual property counsel, indicated that Microsoft has finally seen the open-source light in a recent interview with CNET. Demonstrating that Microsoft has finally learned that it can't fight open-source gravity, Gutierrez suggests, "Today, but increasingly in the future, we are all going to be 'mixed source'," meaning Microsoft and everyone else will balance open source with some proprietary element to their business.

I actually think the war between proprietary and open source is a thing of the past.

In fact, we're already there. Even Microsoft. But it's nice to have Redmond admit it.

What was perhaps less pleasant, and completely unnecessary because Microsoft lacks both the will and the strategic interest in pursuing it, was Gutierrez's saber-rattling over Microsoft's patents:

While Microsoft is patient, Gutierrez indicated that Microsoft's patience is not unlimited. "If every effort to license proves not to be fruitful, ultimately we have a responsibility to customers that have licenses and to our shareholders to ensure our intellectual property is respected," he said.

Yes, you do, Microsoft. Fortunately, the more Microsoft uses open source within its products, the less it trots out this tired refrain from the past.

The fact is that Microsoft has yet to find a way to call out its intellectual property (IP) in things like Linux without stumbling over all of the IP that it, in turn, has "borrowed" from others, including the open-source world. Plus, Microsoft can't sue open-source communities without bumping up against companies like IBM with much broader patent portfolios than its own. If Microsoft sues, Microsoft loses.

Indeed, I'd argue that one primary reason for shacking up with Novell wasn't Microsoft's patent portfolio, but rather Novell's: Novell had key IP that goes to the heart of Microsoft's Office business. The Linux patent covenant was a way for Microsoft to clean up its own patent violations. Funny, that. When I was at Novell my team in the CTO's office never worried about a patent lawsuit from Microsoft.

But that's just the way the modern software world works: it's such a thicket of conflicting IP claims that the only rational (and workable) solution is to overlook competing claims.… Read more

In case you're worried that you haven't been squeezing enough money from your patent portfolio lately, Law Seminars International has a deal for you:

Forget about trying to make money by selling actual products into a tight economy. Just sue your competitors! At worst, you can use scare tactics against the foolish:

Like land speculators, patent investors are investing billions of dollars to amass assets that they intend to monetize for a substantial return. This massive influx in available capital is providing patent owners with increasing opportunity to make money from their inventions, as well as allowing companies … Read more

Update on October 9 at 9:00 a.m. with additional comments from Intel and AMD.

Advanced Micro Device's new manufacturing venture may come with some old baggage.

After AMD announced on Tuesday that it would spin off its manufacturing assets to a new company partially owned by the Abu Dhabi government, Intel was quick to warn AMD about patent and cross-licensing concerns.

AMD will own part of the new manufacturing entity, for the time being to be called The Foundry Company, while Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) will own the rest (55.6 percent) and have equal voting … Read more

It took quite awhile, but Apple has finally received a patent on one of the most recognizable features of Mac OS X.

The Dock--the panel that holds launchers for Mac OS X applications--has been deemed patent-worthy by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Apple first applied for the patent in late 1999, and AppleInsider notes the concept itself dates back to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' work at NeXT Computing.

Since there's really not much else to note about this announcement, let's do a quick survey: right Dock? Left Dock? Center Dock? I'm a center Dock … Read more

The U.S. patent system is increasingly broken, a point argued persuasively on ReadWriteWeb, but there is a huge array of factors working against successful patent reform.

In the meantime, both proprietary and open-source software is constantly threatened, making intellectual property indemnification the No. 1 issue lawyers negotiate when working through software contracts here in the U.S. (This is, incidentally, very different from the issues my company and others face when negotiating contracts in Europe--just one of many differences between open source in the U.S. and in Europe.)

Open-source savvy patent reformers can take heart, however, from this … Read more

Updated 1:40 p.m. PDT, with comment from Alcatel-Lucent.

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that Microsoft need not pay damages to Alcatel-Lucent in a long-running patent dispute in a case that could have opened up a broad range of litigation over the MP3 music format.

The appeals court, in its ruling published Thursday, agreed with a lower court that Microsoft didn't infringe on one patent in question and that Alcatel-Lucent didn't have standing to sue over the other patent.

Microsoft was initially hit with a $1.5 billion verdict in the case. … Read more

Transmeta's chips are on the block. The former supplier of low-power Intel-compatible processors said Wednesday that it is actively seeking a buyer, and also announced two agreements with Intel.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which has remade itself into a supplier of chip-related intellectual property, said that after exploring a range of "strategic alternatives" over the past few months and after strengthening its balance sheet, it will seek a sale as a way to "enhance value for all its stockholders."

Transmeta is working with financial adviser Piper Jaffray.

Back in February, Transmeta weighed an unsolicited offer … Read more

Chipmaker Broadcom has won the latest battle in a long patent war with Qualcomm.

On Wednesday a federal appeals court affirmed that Qualcomm is infringing on two cell phone patents. It also upheld an injunction against Qualcomm selling products with technology that infringes the two patents.

But it wasn't a total loss for Qualcomm. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Qualcomm was not infringing on one of the three patents in question. This patent relates to video compression technology.

That said, the court affirmed the judgment of infringement on two other patents. One … Read more

As anyone who watches Dr. Phil has surely learned, standard polygraph tests measure responses such as blood pressure, pulse, and respiration rate to detect anxiety associated with guilt or lying. But a new kind of lie detector test could skip the psychophysiological gauges and head straight to the brain for answers on a subject's veracity.

New Scientist pointed us to a patent filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization that proposes detecting lies via near-infrared spectroscopy. Basically, a device would shine near-infrared light through the scalp and skull into certain parts of the brain. Seeing how much light reflects back would indicate oxygenation levels, which vary depending on how active the brain is at a given point and could yield information on the neural pathways underlying the cognitive as well as the emotional aspects of deception.

To measure the light, the patent filers, headed up by Dr. Scott Bunce, a professor of psychiatry at Philadelphia's Drexel University College of Medicine, have come up with a flexible sensing device that would fit around the head. Neural activity could be transmitted to a processor through wired or wireless means, according to the patent, and results could be made available after post-test averaging, or in real time, while the subject is being tested.

The inventors cite heightened reliability as the main advantage of their method. Conventional polygraphy, they say, suffers from a lack of specificity in differentiating guilt from fear or anxiety, and that can contribute to an unacceptably high level of false positives. … Read more