Posted: August 18th, 2010 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: business, technology | Tags: google, oracle, troll | No Comments »
Oracle recently sued Google for patent and copyright infringement. The full text of the complaint is available here. I agree with Miguel De Icaza in that this will most likely result in a settlement out of court.
Sun’s weaker position, and its alliance with the Open Source community, did not allow it to sue Google for patent infringement. This is all covered in depth in this CNET article. Given Sun’s massive patent portfolio, and Oracle’s need to monetize their acquisition, the lawsuit is not surprising.
Oracle’s behavior seems troll-like. It is also seems unabashedly capitalist. Big companies that act like trolls have a tendency to be countersued. Chances are, others can find a patent or two that the bigger company has run afoul of. The question is, why is a large company like Oracle going after a large company like Google, besides the money? Oracle has much to lose in this case. In addition, it is not clear that they have all that much to gain either.
As Eben Moglen pointed out at his recent Linuxcon keynote “The patent system is built for secrecy and for trouble-making — it’s not a pro-innovation system.” Patent trolls and those that sue for patent infringement usually are not creating any value. This is a reason that the Open Source community, people who create value for the common good, finds this behavior so reprehensible.
A lot of enterprise software companies are sitting on a lot of cash. Investment opportunities are not good as a few years ago. Consequently, for companies that have not donated their patents to cross-licensing organizations (such as OIN), it makes sense to extract as much value as possible out of their patent portfolio. Also, it has the benefit of helping companies to build out their cash stockpiles, suppress competition and stifle innovation.
Posted: August 17th, 2010 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: technology | Tags: arm-twisting, patent, patents, technology, trolling | No Comments »
Via Felix Salmon, here is the patent on patent trolling.
Abstract:
Methods for a first party to acquire and assert a patent property against a second party are disclosed. The methods include obtaining an equity interest in the patent property. The methods further include writing a claim within the scope of the patent property. The claim is written to cover a product of the second party where the product includes a secret aspect. The methods further include filing the claim with a patent office. The methods sometimes include offering a license of the patent property to the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include asserting infringement of the claim by the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include negotiating a cross-license with the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim, where under the cross-license the first party obtains a license to an intellectual property right from the second party. The methods sometime include attempting to obtain a monetary settlement from the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim. – link
Posted: August 4th, 2010 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: politics | Tags: progress, signs | 1 Comment »
As we move into the election season, opponents of the recovery act will bemoan the wasteful spending on road signs. Michelle Malkin actually posted about this last year, so the attacks started early. If you have not driven along our highways in the last few years:
This reminds me of the plaque I see every day on my way to work.
The
WPA was the largest New Deal agency which put millions of Americans to work. So I have a list of reasons why the signage is important:
- Makers of signs need employment too
- There is a multiplier effect with this spending
- It is a small portion of the total spend
- They tell people what projects are started, in their community
- They remind people of the projects that were accomplished
Posted: August 3rd, 2010 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: technology | Tags: control, htpc, Lenovo, multimedia, remote | No Comments »
I was a little bit embarrassed when I pulled out a wired keyboard and a mouse to show some guests a Youtube video on my HTPC. I saw that the Lenovo Multimedia Remote with Keyboard
was on sale directly through Lenovo, so I ordered it without a lot of research. My cost was about $33 with free shipping.
The remote fits very nicely in my hands. It is a full-featured keyboard which reminds me of a Blackberry, though the feel is not as good. The remote is very lightweight, so much so that it makes me question the quality. However, I have not had any issues with it yet. The rollerball could be a bit smoother and it takes some getting used to the operation, especially clicking.
The USB dongle is extremely small. One great design point is that it fits in the base of the remote, next to the 2 AA batteries, in case you want to retire the remote without losing the dongle. Another good feature is a on/off switch under the remote to save on batteries.
One missing feature this keyboard is a back-lighting on the keyboard. It is impossible to see the keys in the dark, which is a PITA if you want to use this to control your HTPC. The remote worked immediately with Ubuntu and the dongle is almost invisible with my HTPC. Overall, I am happy with my purchase and would buy this keyboard again, especially at the $35 price point. It was definitely worth it to retire the wired keyboard I had before.
