Today we got to see Microsoft apply that old chestnut: If you can’t innovate, sue.
Microsoft just announced that they are suing Barnes & Noble, Foxconn, and Inventec for violating MS patents in making the Nook. According to Microsoft, “The patents at issue cover a range of functionality embodied in Android devices that are essential to the user experience, including: natural ways of interacting with devices by tabbing through various screens to find the information they need; surfing the Web more quickly, and interacting with documents and e-books.”
There’s no response yet from B&N, but you can be sure that they will fight. Microsoft filed a similar action last October against Motorola, over their Android-based smartphones. The company’s claims against Android first became apparent earlier last year, when they reached a patent deal with HTC over Android.
image by SeattleClouds.com
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Patents – Reality and Misconceptions - The Digital Reader // Oct 13, 2011 at 7:27 pm
[...] this day and age, a patent is not used to protect your ideas so much as it is used as a club to bludgeon your competition or as a shield to protect yourself against groundless [...]