Beyond Binary

Microsoft said late Monday that is suspending access to an MSN China microblogging site amid allegations the service is based on code swiped from a rival.

Canadian start-up Plurk lashed out at Microsoft earlier on Monday, saying that 80 percent of the code for Juku appeared to be lifted directly from its service.

Microsoft reiterated late Monday that it is investigating the matter but issued a statement saying it was pulling down the Juku feature while it looks into things.

"Earlier today, questions arose over a feature developed by a third-party vendor for our MSN China joint venture," Microsoft said in a statement. "Because questions have been raised about the code base comprising the service, MSN China will be suspending access to the Juku beta feature temporarily while we investigate the matter fully."

Microsoft added that the investigation was slowed by the fact that when questions were first raised it was the middle of the night in China.

"Now that the day has begun in China, our teams are working hard to track down the information," Microsoft said.

The company also confirmed what a source previously told CNET, namely that Microsoft's MSN China joint venture "contracted with an independent vendor" to create the MSN Juku feature, which debuted last month and is still in beta.

Earlier on Monday, Microsoft said it was investigating the issue.

For its part, Plurk said it is still trying to decide how to handle things.

"We're not entirely sure but we are exploring our options," Plurk said in its blog posting. "We have been seeking advice from respected colleagues, responding to press inquiries and gathering facts on the timeline of events and parties involved here to understand why and how this took place."

It's the second time in recent weeks that Microsoft has been accused of lifting other's work in its products. Last month, the company was forced to pull down a tool for loading Windows 7 onto Netbooks after allegations that the product improperly included open-source code. Microsoft later apologized and last week re-released the tool under the GPL open-source license. Microsoft also blamed a third-party vendor in that case.

Plurk accuses Microsoft China of ripping off its design and code to create its Juku microblogging service.

(Credit: Plurk)

Microsoft said on Monday afternoon that it's investigating allegations that a recently launched microblogging site in China lifts the code and interface of a start-up's rival service.

"Microsoft takes intellectual property seriously, and we are currently investigating these allegations," company spokesman Mark Murray said in a statement. "It may take some time due to the time zone differences with Beijing."

Earlier on Monday, Canada's Plurk went public with charges that Microsoft's Juku service "rips off" the look and feel of its microblogging service and also appears to use more than 80 percent of the same code, all without permission.

"Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements is just not cool, especially when the infringing party is the biggest software company in the world," Plurk said on its blog.

Plurk said it is still evaluating what to do in the case.

"We're not entirely sure but we are exploring our options," Plurk said. We have been seeking advice from respected colleagues, responding to press inquiries and gathering facts on the timeline of events and parties involved here to understand why and how this took place.

It's the second time in recent weeks that Microsoft has been accused of lifting other's work in its products. Last month, the company was forced to pull down a tool for loading Windows 7 onto Netbooks after allegations that the product improperly included open-source code. Microsoft later apologized and last week re-released the tool under the GPL open-source license.

Update, 5:50 p.m. PT: A few more details are starting to trickle in.

According to a source familiar with the situation, the Juku application was created for MSN China, which is a joint venture between Microsoft and a Chinese company. However, the source says the application was not designed by Microsoft or the joint venture, but rather by a third-party Chinese vendor hired for the task.

If that sounds a bit familiar, Microsoft also blamed a vendor for the Windows 7 download tool that contained GPL code. Contracting with vendors is typical, and Microsoft typically requires that the third party provide legal guarantees that the code is free of any intellectual property infringement.

As of this point, the Juku program continues to run on the MSN China site.

Plurk accuses Microsoft China of ripping off its design and code to create its Juku microblogging service.

(Credit: Plurk)

Microsoft on Thursday said it has started licensing the technology behind another flash memory format.

The company announced a program to license out the Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) format, which is an updated version of the file allocation table format. Microsoft also licenses out that format, though its patents there have been the subject of contention, particularly since many distributions of Linux include the FAT formats.

The newer format, exFAT, can work on far larger-capacity devices than its predecessor--256 terabytes, as opposed to 32GB for FAT. It also allows for faster file saves on Secure Digital Extended Capacity cards and is more extensible than its predecessor, Microsoft said.

"There has been an explosion in the use of rich audio and video files," David Kaefer, general manager of Intellectual Property Licensing at Microsoft, said in a statement. "ExFAT is an ideal file system that delivers fast and reliable use of audio and video files."

Kaefer added that exFAT is an important technology in Windows 7. "Now that we are licensing this technology broadly to the industry, we want to encourage and support partners to build products that also contain this technology."

Sony, Canon, and Sanyo have already signed up to license the format, Microsoft said.

For certain device categories, such as cameras, camcorders, and digital photo frames, Microsoft is charging a flat $300,000 license fee, while companies that want to use the format in devices such as phones, PCs, and networks will have to pay a volume-based license fee.

Microsoft has been on a push to license out more of its intellectual property since December 2003.

Because of its ties to Linux, the licensing of the FAT technology has been among Microsoft's more controversial moves, resulting in significant efforts to have Microsoft's patents declared invalid.

The patents related to the FAT formats were among those Microsoft included in its suit against TomTom. The two sides later settled the patent dispute.

Microsoft and TomTom have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits, the companies said Monday.

As part of the deal, as TomTom will pay Microsoft for patent protection related to mapping patents and file-management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom's use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom's countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won't make any payment to TomTom.

In a statement, the two companies said that the settlement provides TomTom patent coverage "in a manner that is fully compliant with TomTom's obligations under the General Public License Version 2." As part of the agreement, TomTom will "remove from its products the functionality related to two file management systems patents" over the next two years. The agreement protects TomTom's customers under the patents during that time, the companies said.

The settlement has a five-year term. Specific financial terms were not disclosed. With respect to Microsoft's mapping patents and TomTom's patents, the two companies have agreed to take no further legal action for the duration of the term. In the case of the three file management patents, Microsoft is providing an agreement not to sue customers for their use of TomTom's products.

"We are pleased TomTom has chosen to resolve the litigation amicably by entering into a patent agreement," Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement.

Microsoft filed its legal actions against TomTom last month. Attention was focused on the Linux claim as it marked the first time that Microsoft had filed court papers with its long-held assertion that Linux infringes on its intellectual property.

"This agreement puts an end to the litigation between our two companies," said Peter Spours, Director of IP Strategy and Transactions at TomTom, in a statement. "It is drafted in a way that ensures TomTom's full compliance with its obligations under the GPLv2, and thus reaffirms our commitment to the open source community."

Although the pact may settles things for TomTom, it adds further questions marks for where Microsoft is headed with its broader claims against Linux. The software maker has refused to go into detail as to what actions it might take against other companies that use Linux commercially.

However, the company has aggressively sought patent deals with companies that use Linux commercially. In addition to its deals with Linux vendors such as Novell, TurboLinux, and Xandros, Microsoft has also signed pacts with consumer electronics firms that use Linux, such LG, Samsung, and Fuji Xerox.

In recent interviews, Gutierrez has said that, although each case is different, Microsoft has an obligation to its shareholders as well as to the companies that have taken patent licenses to ensure that Microsoft is being fairly compensated for its intellectual property, including in cases involving Linux.

Until the TomTom case, we had only seen examples where Microsoft was able to convince companies to take a license. The TomTom case shows, though, that we may see Microsoft begin to take further action when negotiations don't lead to a deal.

Even after it was clear that Blu-ray would win the DVD format race, Microsoft continued to stand behind the rival HD DVD.

The software maker may have had many reasons, including the fact that its technology was used by HD DVD, but another reason was that Microsoft had promised HD DVD format backer Toshiba that it would do so as part of its effort to win a patent cross-license deal with the Japanese electronics giant.

(Credit: Amazon.com)

That's among the interesting tidbits tucked away in Marshall Phelps' new book, "Burning the Ships," which I wrote about earlier Tuesday. Phelps, a top Microsoft lawyer, and co-author David Kline suggest that Microsoft had already decided to back HD DVD, but that the company redoubled its support as part of its effort to woo Toshiba to become the first big Japanese firm to take a cross-license to Microsoft's patents.

Microsoft lawyer Anne Kelley and her team were trying to get Toshiba to sign a deal in a matter of weeks as opposed to the year or so such an agreement would normally take to hammer out. The HD DVD pledge was only part of Microsoft's effort, which also included sharing some of the future things it was working on that might interest Toshiba.

"Kelley's team also reaffirmed its support for Toshiba in its battle with Sony over DVD formats," Phelps and Kline wrote. "As she put it, 'we let them know that Microsoft would stick with them till the end.'"

The battle between the formats was a high-stakes affair, with Toshiba and Blu-ray proponent Sony each trying to line up backers for their formats. In the computer world, Intel and Microsoft backed HD DVD, while Dell and HP aligned with Blu-ray.

At the same time, winning the deal with Toshiba was key for Microsoft in its efforts to convince large companies, even those with broader patent portfolios, to cross-license Microsoft's technology.

In the second half of 2004, Microsoft struck roughly 20 new deals, including with some big names such as Cisco and Samsung, but the company was having a tough time striking deals with Japanese PC makers.

In February 2005, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith held a mid-year review meeting in Building 43 on Microsoft's campus, stressing the importance of cracking that market. "I conveyed my concern in the meeting about the lack of progress in Japan," Smith is quoted in the book as saying, "and I started to push Anne and the team pretty hard on how and when we might improve this."

The company decided to focus on winning a deal with one company: Toshiba.

"We did everything we knew how to do to show them that this was a new Microsoft they were dealing with," Kelley says in the book. "We studied Japanese, we went to cultural training and we constantly reminded ourselves that we needed to create a relationship, not just get a deal done."

The strategy ultimately paid off, as Microsoft went on to sign a host of such deals, including with other Japanese firms such as Fuji Xerox, Seiko Epson, and NEC.

Microsoft has licensed its technical know-how to nearly every company, including rivals such as Apple and Nokia.

Now Redmond can add Google to the list. To help power the Google Sync product that was announced on Monday, the search giant has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol for sharing information between a server and mobile phone.

Google Sync allows users to synchronize their contacts, and in some cases calendar information, with Google's Web-based services. It works with a range of phones including Windows Mobile phones, Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry, and phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Generally, companies have licensed the ActiveSync protocol to link data between a cell phone and a Microsoft Exchange server. In this case, though, Google is using ActiveSync to link Google data off of their servers to mobile phones.

Although Google and Microsoft have cooperated in some areas in the past, the deal on Monday is the first announced example of one of those companies licensing the other's intellectual property, according to Microsoft.

Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's top intellectual property lawyer touted the move.

"Google's licensing of these Microsoft patents relating to the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol is a clear (acknowledgment) of the innovation taking place at Microsoft," Gutierrez said in a statement. "This agreement is also a great example of Microsoft's openness to generally license our patents under fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft intellectual property."

Gutierrez noted that the company has struck more than 500 licensing deals since it began its intellectual property-sharing push in 2003.

So, by my count, that leaves Oracle and Red Hat among big name technology companies that don't have some sort of pact with Microsoft. Anyone else have another prominent name I should add to that list?

Update, 2:05 p.m. PT: I thought it was worth checking to see if the deal between Google and Microsoft was broad enough to cover Exchange synchronizing to an Android device. "Android is not covered by this agreement," a Microsoft representative told CNET News.

Microsoft got another &#@*%-ing patent.

The software maker last week was granted U.S. patent No. 7437290 for, essentially, a technology that lets the company bleep out words in an audio stream that match a list of predefined bad words.

Ars Technica, which reported on the patent both when Microsoft applied for it in 2004 as well as now that it has been granted, notes that the technology could be used for more than just censoring profanity, suggesting that perhaps China or another government would want it employed for other phrases, such as Tibet or free speech.

Ars notes that the technology could be particularly adept if applied to cell phone audio given that cell phones have proved an important tool for dissidents aiming to organize.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, it wasn't able to use the technology in time to thwart this new ad from Apple.

The patent is just the latest in Microsoft's growing arsenal of patents, which the company has been .

Microsoft, which is no stranger to being on the receiving end of patent infringement claims, now finds itself on the other side of the legal docket.

Late Wednesday, the software maker filed legal actions against a Taiwanese company it says is violating the company's hardware patents related to computer mice.

Microsoft said it has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission after failing to be able to negotiate a licensing deal with Primax Electronics. In the complaint, Microsoft is seeking an order barring Primax from importing infringing products into the United States.

In an interview, Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez said the company made the moves only after "repeated attempts to engage in meaningful license terms over the past two years."

Gutierrez noted that Microsoft has had an open policy with regard to licensing its intellectual property for years and that more than 20 companies are part of its hardware technology licensing program, including companies such as Targus, Fellowes, and RadioShack.

Although other Taiwanese companies have taken a license to Microsoft technology, Gutierrez said that Primax showed no willingness to do so.

"We've actually approached them repeatedly," he said. "The conversations never got anywhere."

Microsoft is suing over seven patents related to two technologies used in computer mice. The first, known as U2, allows a mouse to connect to both USB and PS/2 ports, auto detecting which port is being used. The second, dubbed TiltWheel, has to do with adding additional cursor movement abilities to the mouse via tilting.

Although Microsoft rarely is the plaintiff in patent cases, it has gone to court over its mouse patents before, suing Compton, Calif.-based Belkin back in August 2006. The two sides settled just a few months later, Gutierrez said.