Live By The Patent, Get Sued By The Patent
from the such-is-life dept
Microsoft has been a big believer in patents lately, even though Bill Gates once classically noted that the computer industry would have been at a "standstill" if people had aggressively patented ideas back in the early days of personal computing. Since then, however, Microsoft has massively ramped up its patenting machine. But, of course, if you live by the patent, you should expect to get sued by the patent as well. Brian writes in to let us know that a patent holding firm, with a long history of suing a bunch of big name tech firms is now suing Microsoft as well, claiming that every copy of Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 violate its patent 6629163 on "Demultiplexing a First Sequence of Packet Components to Identify Specific Components Wherein Subsequent Components are Processed without Re-Identifying Components." I have no idea if the patent is valid or not, but I always find it amusing when big patent system supporters find themselves sued for patent infringement as well.Filed Under: patents
Companies: implicit networks, microsoft