Facebook Buys Most Of The AOL Patents From Microsoft That It Bought Just Weeks Ago
from the patent-shuffling dept
You may recall that, a few weeks ago, Microsoft bought all of AOL's patents for about a billion dollars. Last week, the news came out that Facebook had bid on the patents too, but lost. However, it's now worked out a deal to buy a bunch of those patents from Microsoft anyway for about $550 million. There's also some sort of cross-licensing as a part of this. The end result is that it's more like Microsoft and Facebook teamed up to pool resources to buy the patents from AOL. It's unclear who now has the Netscape patents, or what's going to be done with these patents. It's good that they didn't end up in the hands of pure trolls, but it still seems like a shame that these companies have to spend so much money on something of which the only value is in either keeping them from getting sued or in shaking down others for innovating. What happened to the days when companies could just compete with products in the marketplace?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: innovation, netscape, patents, shakedown
Companies: aol, facebook, microsoft
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Freakonomics: Acemoglu and Robinson Answer Your Questions: "But when left unchecked, all companies, even successful and inventive ones like Microsoft and Google, will also try to monopolize the market, create entry barriers, and tilt the playing field to their favor. The robber barons did this very successfully."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Is the tech sector slowly dying?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Is the tech sector slowly dying?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Is the tech sector slowly dying?
30 years ago, the idea that software could be patented in any but the most exceptional conditions was considered insanity. 30 years ago, "look & feel" was not considered something that could fall under the terms of copyright.
30 years ago, copyright was considerably more respectable, and respected, than it is now. It's a shame that the major content companies have caused a respectable idea to become so egregious in implementation that it has caused such an erosion in the very thing they purport to need so badly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
It looks like a big game to me too, and now that some of these companies have more wealth than they know what to do with, this is how they play.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pwnage Super Mega Ultra Competition
It's a win-win-win scenario:
1) the courts have less work (they're already slow as moles-asses in January)
2) there are less corporate officers at one or both companies (new blood in, old blood out, AND job openings)
3) The corps & the pay-per-view network might break even or get a profit on said endeavour, and the people are entertained.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
But then again, if you don't play, you'll be forced into bankruptcy trying to defend yourself from everyone else.
I think this is more of a modern day version of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction). I'm just waiting to see which of the major software giants fire the first strike igniting the first Worldwide Patent War.
So let's all grab a bag of popcorn and raise the alert to DRAMACON-1.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
You'll be interested in this, then.
Mark Cuban Invests In Vringo, Which Is Suing Google - Business Insider: "However, it's not hard to figure out what's happening here. Rather than sit on the sidelines and cheer for Yahoo to blow up Facebook, Cuban is jumping in on his own. He's going to try and nuke Google and cause a big change in the patent law."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
The big guys are all building up their arsenals, like during the Cold War, trying to get one step ahead of the other guys. A few alliances here and there (Like Microsoft and Facebook in this deal) We have Yahoo, going more the way of North Korea (aka "the spoiled child"), "Pay attention to us or we'll nuke you!"
So, Yahoo finally decides it has no other choice and fires off the lawsuits. Facebook counters with it's own counter lawsuit. This causes precedents in the legal system upsetting the balance between Apple and Samsung, which then start getting even uglier then it already is. Microsoft tries to capitalize on this by assisting Samsung in the hopes of striking a crippling blow to Apple. Google tries to back away from all of this but ends up getting it from all sides since everyone else has a target painted on Google. Meanwhile the other patent trolls like Intellectual Ventures decide now is the time to strike! The MPAA and RIAA decide that patent issues is really about "theft" so they sue everyone left standing for "copyright infringement" because they don't see why they shouldn't get a piece of all the lawsuit money being flung around. These "patent lawsuits" are causing loss revenue to them, even though it has nothing to do with them, since instead of paying for patent lawyers, all that money would have instead been used to buy music and movies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
It's like watching the rich throw money at baubles the rest of us could never afford. We're shut out of this, so we get to watch the destruction from the sidelines.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How long ago was that!?!?!?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The fabulously rich dumb robbing the fabulously rich dumber.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's time to ignore the big tech companies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It's time to ignore the big tech companies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
..
Speaking of frivolous jobs. It's not fair that patent lawyers don't contribute shit to the economy yet make tons of money. I think it is only fair that instead of welfare, we re-implement the ditch digger/filler useless jobs also.
We could just pay people to stand around, but obesity is costing money, so we need to keep them working.
Even better! Lets get money for fiber infrastructure. I want fiber to the house in every city over 4000 people. Ditch diggers be praised!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: ..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: ..
God, yes.
You get it. It's never been about reducing inappropriate transfer of wealth. It's just that some people have fixed the laws to transfer wealth to others who don't necessarily need it and that preserve the status quo rather than actually benefiting lots of people.
We could also benefit from having more money into technologies that wean us off fossil fuels, but by God we're going to pump every last drop of available oil out of this country before we think of doing that. If we've got to frack every neighborhood to do it, we'll do it.
And heaven forbid that we build more bike paths. Cycling is an international conspiracy to take our cars away from us. And what is the military thinking that it should go green. Oil for them, too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What a bunch of alarmist bullshit
Did you want these patents to NOT be purchased at all? How was that going to happen?
From the point of view of a Microsoft or Google or Facebook, they have to defend against the potential of the actions that trolls would have taken against them. They pay the most, because they have the most to lose.
Try to wait a see what they DO with the patent (bad OR good) before you start whining. These guys have plenty of real issues to which you can validly take exception now, without having to reach for this nonsense.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
MSFT's foot in Facebook's door
Also, look for a change in infrastructure, away from free/open stuff like PHP and Linux to Windows and .NET.
It sort of happened to HotMail, so it's not unprecedented.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: MSFT's foot in Facebook's door
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
the way i see it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Take your 'stifling creativity' argument up to Google, Facebook and Apple.
And when you win that war we can talk about movie makers and musicians.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
In the last few months I have begun to wonder if all the emphasis on Big Media being evil is a way to divert attention from Big Tech being evil. Take down Big Media if you want, but don't assume Big Tech is on the side of the "little people" of the world. Any company that has to play the stock market game is pretty much going to do whatever boosts its interests.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
another biased article
Call it what you will...patent hoarder, patent troll, non-practicing entity, shell company, etc. It all means one thing: “we’re using your invention and we’re not going to pay or stop”. This is just dissembling by large infringers and their paid puppets to kill any inventor support system. It is purely about legalizing theft. The fact is, many of the large multinationals who defame inventors in this way themselves make no products in the US or create any American jobs and it is their continued blatant theft which makes it impossible for the true creators to do so.
Prior to eBay v Mercexchange, small entities had a viable chance at commercializing their inventions. If the defendant was found guilty, an injunction was most always issued. Then the inventor small entity could enjoy the exclusive use of his invention in commercializing it. Unfortunately, injunctions are often no longer available to small entity inventors because of the Supreme Court decision so we have no fair chance to compete with much larger entities who are now free to use our inventions. Essentially, large infringers now have your gun and all the bullets. Worse yet, inability to commercialize means those same small entities will not be hiring new employees to roll out their products and services. And now some of those same parties who killed injunctions for small entities and thus blocked their chance at commercializing now complain that small entity inventors are not commercializing. They created the problem and now they want to blame small entities for it. What dissembling! If you don’t like this state of affairs (your unemployment is running out), tell your Congress member. Then maybe we can get some sense back in the patent system with injunctions fully enforceable on all infringers by all inventors, large and small.
Those wishing to help fight big business giveaways should contact us as below and join the fight as we are building a network of inventors and other stakeholders to lobby Congress to restore property rights for all patent owners -large and small.
For the truth about trolls, please see http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html#pt.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]