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[News] Microsoft Sued.... by TomTom!

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TomTom countersues Microsoft in patent dispute

,----[ Quote ]
| TomTom has responded to Microsoft's patent suit by filing a patent claim of 
| its own against the software maker. 
| 
| The GPS device maker, based in the Netherlands, filed the countersuit in the 
| U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday.  
`----

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10200526-75.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Recent:

TomTom Linux impact light hit so far

,----[ Quote ]
| I don’t necessarily see the same effect from the TomTom suit since, at least
| publicly, Microsoft is not making the case that it is Linux on the line. I
| can report that there does not seem to be any slowdown or hesitation in the
| embrace of Linux for embedded devices. Perhaps that is the reason that
| Microsoft has chosen to play down any implications for Linux and open source,
| rather than puff them up as it has done in the past. If Microsoft or anyone
| else challenges the IP integrity of the Linux OS, it is likely to reinforce
| the idea that the open source software is legitimate, licensed, covered by
| copyright, and absolutely appropriate for enterprise, embedded and other
| commercial uses, at least that’s what history tells us.
`----

http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2009/03/12/tomtom-linux-impact-light-hit-so-far/


Experts: Microsoft's FAT licensing terms might violate GPL

,----[ Quote ]
| Under the original FAT licensing program, pricing was US$0.25 per unit with a
| cap on total royalties of $250,000 per manufacturer, according to what had
| been posted on Microsoft’s website from 2003 to July 2006. A Microsoft
| spokesperson could not explain why they were removed or whether those terms
| were applicable to the 18 agreements outlined in the lawsuit.
`----

http://www.sdtimes.com/EXPERTS_MICROSOFT_S_FAT_LICENSING_TERMS_MIGHT_VIOLATE_GPL/About_MICROSOFT_and_OPENSOURCE_and_TOMTOM/33327


Microsoft sues TomTom over FAT patents

,----[ Quote ]
| The underlying strategy is very obvious: Make those patent licenses high
| enough to reduce the cost advantage of a Linux based OS over Windows CE and
| thereby demotivate companies from using Linux in the embedded world.
|
| This has so far happened behind closed doors, but if you google you can find
| a couple of strange press releases of Asian companies buying into those MS
| patent deals for Linux.
|
| [...]
|
| I myself, as well as numerous other people in the Free and Open Source world
| are asking themselves how this legal action fits into the
| Microsoft-proclaimed Free Software friendly strategy. As you can see now,
| that was nothing but vapor.
`----

http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2009/02/27/#20090227-microsoft_patent_lawsuit


http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/fatgen.mspx

1. LIMITED LICENSE AND COVENANT NOT TO SUE.

(a) Provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this Agreement
and subject to the limitations in Sections 1(c) - (f) below, Microsoft grants
to you the following non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, non-transferable,
non-sublicenseable license under any copyrights owned or licensable by
Microsoft without payment of consideration to unaffiliated third parties, to
reproduce the Specification solely for the purposes of creating portions of
products which comply with the Specification in unmodified form.

(b) Provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this Agreement
and subject to the limitations in Sections 1(c) - (f) below, Microsoft grants
to you the following non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, non-transferable,
non-sublicenseable, reciprocal limited covenant not to sue under its Necessary
Claims solely to make, have made, use, import, and directly and indirectly,
offer to sell, sell and otherwise distribute and dispose of portions of
products which comply with the Specification in unmodified form.
For purposes of sections (a) and (b) above, the Specification is “unmodified”
if there are no changes, additions or extensions to the Specification,
and “Necessary Claims” means claims of a patent or patent application which
are (1) owned or licenseable by Microsoft without payment of consideration to
an unaffiliated third party; and (2) have an effective filing date on or
before December 31, 2010, that must be infringed in order to make a portion(s)
of a product that complies with the Specification. Necessary Claims does not
include claims relating to semiconductor manufacturing technology or
microprocessor circuits or claims not required to be infringed in complying
with the Specification (even if in the same patent as Necessary Claims).

(c) The foregoing covenant not to sue shall not extend to any part or function
of a product which (i) is not required to comply with the Specification in
unmodified form, or (ii) to which there was a commercially reasonable
alternative to infringing a Necessary Claim.
(d) Each of the license and the covenant not to sue described above shall be
unavailable to you and shall terminate immediately if you or any of your
Affiliates (collectively “Covenantee Party”) “Initiates” any action for patent
infringement against: (x) Microsoft or any of its Affiliates
(collectively “Granting Party”), (y) any customers or distributors of the
Granting Party, or other recipients of a covenant not to sue with respect to
the Specification from the Granting Party (“Covenantees”); or (z) any
customers or distributors of Covenantees (all parties identified in (y) and
(z) collectively referred to as “Customers”), which action is based on a
conformant implementation of the Specification. As used herein, “Affiliate”
means any entity which directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or
is under common control with a party; and control shall mean the power,
whether direct or indirect, to direct or cause the direction of the management
or policies of any entity whether through the ownership of voting securities,
by contract or otherwise. “Initiates” means that a Covenantee Party is the
first (as between the Granting Party and the Covenantee Party) to file or
institute any legal or administrative claim or action for patent infringement
against the Granting Party or any of the Customers. “Initiates” includes any
situation in which a Covenantee Party files or initiates a legal or
administrative claim or action for patent infringement solely as a
counterclaim or equivalent in response to a Granting Party first filing or
instituting a legal or administrative patent infringement claim against such
Covenantee Party.

(e) Each of the license and the covenant not to sue described above shall not
extend to your use of any portion of the Specification for any purpose other
than (a) to create portions of an operating system (i) only as necessary to
adapt such operating system so that it can directly interact with a firmware
implementation of the Extensible Firmware Initiative Specification v. 1.0
(“EFI Specification”); (ii) only as necessary to emulate an implementation of
the EFI Specification; and (b) to create firmware, applications, utilities
and/or drivers that will be used and/or licensed for only the following
purposes: (i) to install, repair and maintain hardware, firmware and portions
of operating system software which are utilized in the boot process; (ii) to
provide to an operating system runtime services that are specified in the EFI
Specification; (iii) to diagnose and correct failures in the hardware,
firmware or operating system software; (iv) to query for identification of a
computer system (whether by serial numbers, asset tags, user or otherwise);
(v) to perform inventory of a computer system; and (vi) to manufacture,
install and setup any hardware, firmware or operating system software.

(f) Microsoft reserves all other rights it may have in the Specification and
any intellectual property therein. The furnishing of this document does not
give you any license or covenant not to sue with respect to any other
Microsoft patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property
rights.
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