Comments on: Microsoft suit alleges ex-worker stole trade secrets

Start-up CEO is accused of getting hired by Microsoft under false pretenses in order to steal information to use in a patent lawsuit against three Microsoft partners.

i hate it when i defrag and it wipes my data

[MacHeads]

Well this is a typical microsoft practice ... Copy embrace and extinguish all type of potential competition , from the moment he signed for a position at Microsoft all his intellectual production became property of the company... Now would that apply to his prior work is for the court to determine , IMHO working for such a company with such a low record for respecting IP rights is calling for trouble...

[JoeF2]

"from the moment he signed for a position at Microsoft all his intellectual production became property of the company"

Unlikely. If a person develops things on company time or with company resources, then the development belongs to the company. Things a person develops on his or her own with no company resources are the person's property.

[rapier1]

Ummm... No.

Ancora developed the technology and was issued the patent before Mullor started working for MS. As such MS would have no claim on any IP produced prior to that time. The question depends entirely on what claims the patent actually covers and if any of those claims are infringed by the MS application. What's interesting, is that if you read the breif, the patent depends on the use of storing license/key information in non-volitile memory - BIOS in other words. This is probably why MS wasn't interested in the first place. If the defendants do not make use of BIOS or other non volitile memory to hold license information there probably is no basis for the suit as all the patents claims chain back to that requirement.

[Understarsidream]

So if I understand this correctly - Microsoft "appropriates" a patent for it's own use without paying a license fee and is sued because of it. They then counter sue saying they should have free access to said patent just because someone from the company suing them was working for them.

And Microsoft still can't understand why companies hate them?

[rapier1]

That's if the technology actually infringes on any of the claims. Go read the patent - I could be wrong but it seems like an unlikely implementation methodology.

[Inconnux]

The irony of Microsoft suing someone for stealing their ideas...

[sexy_sofie]

oh the irony!

[sebastien.kalonji]

Well they better watch out before they alert the person who MS stole those ideas of

[Orion Blastar]

D'oh Microsoft got started by buying Q-DOS/86-DOS from Seattle Software for $50,000 and selling it to IBM for Millions as IBM PC-DOS even if it did violate CP/M-86 IPs. DRI should have sued IBM and Microsoft for IBM PC-DOS violating CP/M-86's IPs at the time. But instead DRI made GEM to compete with Windows and DR-DOS to compete with MS-DOS and IBM PC-DOS later after CP/M tanked.

It should be obvious that IP stifles competition, if only one company held the GUI IP and other important IPs we wouldn't have the freedom to choose between a Macintosh, Windows PC, Linux, *BSD Unix, AmigaOS, AROS, HaikuOS, OS/2 eComStation, or even OpenDOS with OpenGEM.

[inachu]

Hey lets counter sue people for the exact thing they accuse us of!
I took a train to D.C. once and went above ground for some food and as I enter the fast food joint a lawyer ran up to me accusing me of hit and run to his car. He swore it was me and police came as I ordered my food and he glared at me so evil. Yeah buddy an underground train hit yiour car.

[danielz40]

Sounds like Microsoft is at fault and are just trying to bully another developer.

How surprising.