Microsoft Served with Lawsuit Over Live Tiles
Don't know what to make of this
http://www.surfcast.com/index.php »
No indication that these annoying twits do anything with their patents except sue people. IMO, that makes their trolling worse, even if MS is a jerk.
WP7 was on phones only. Windows 8 resides "on the user's desktop."
They were actually quite forward thinking and mentioned the use on multiple devices including handheld devices. If I had to guess, though, WP7 was not multi-device compatible and Windows 8 is - here's your lawsuit!
What I see happening is, Microsoft, if ruled against, will just buy the patent and keep it moving. It will be interesting to see what happens, considering they were granted a patent for the same idea. This doesn't mean that MS stole their idea, it just means that more than one person(s) thought of it. Since this company suing them never actually had a working product in all that time, it would be a little hard to prove that Microsoft actually stole their idea. The burden of proof is on them. Besides, MS was granted the patent, which to me indicates...
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That said, I'd be very surprised if this caused even the smallest of hitches in the Win8 rollout. With any luck it'll be thrown out. Displaying a grid of information on a desktop is NOT unique or innovative, especially worded the way it is.
F'ing patent trolls :\
While I hate to mention Apple in an otherwise unrelated patent case, this seems similar to when they sued over the unified search 'on the homescreen'. Like, you're allowed to use unified search, but you can't put it in the most obvious place. In this case, you can have a grid of tiles, but you can't put it in what used to be the most obvious place.
And how the hell is a "grid of tiles" patentable in the first place? What is a standard desktop if not a grid of icon tiles? Is the fact that they're squares suddenly make this unique and non...
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As far stealing the idea being impossible because it hadn't come to market - That would be true only in the universe where patents are not available for public scrutiny. Inability to create a viable product with your innovation does not in any way diminish your rights in that innovation during the limited term of your patent. Failure to assert your rights under the patent does diminish them in fact if not in law.
Microsoft can negotiate to license this innovation, fight it in court, buy the innovator's firm or change their software. It is not like their hands are tied.
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