FUD

Steve Bates of Yellow Doggerel Democrat has an software patent update, Background Info On Software Patents, on an earlier post about Microsoft threats.

Stephen Shankland, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, as more on the issue: Experts say Microsoft’s patent quest won’t go far

Microsoft said the Linux kernel infringes 42 Microsoft patents, but [Linus] Torvalds is among those who refuses to investigate whether he’s violating any.

“There are several reasons why engineers should not read other people’s patents, only their own. And it’s not a ‘hide your head in the sand’ issue, it’s a very practical issue of it being a waste of time,” Torvalds said.

For one thing, developing technology without looking at patents lets a person honestly say they developed that technology independently, which helps show that the patent in question doesn’t meet the requirement of a technology not being obvious, he said. And engineers aren’t likely to comprehend patents in the first place: “Unless you have a patent attorney at your side, patent language usually makes no sense.”

He derided Microsoft for spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) rather than tackling the issue forthrightly. “If Microsoft were to actually tell people what patents they claim we violate, we could either laugh in their face and show prior art, or just show them to be obvious, or we could do things differently,” he said.

Microsoft has a long history of using FUD to damage competitors, and it’s about time they really got slammed for their anticompetitive practices. They have not, to date, developed any new or innovative products. They have brought out different versions of existing products and used market share and predatory pricing to destroy the competition. The free software they give you today, will cost you tomorrow.