80 lines
2.7 KiB
HTML
80 lines
2.7 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2012-02-14">
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<head>
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<title>Nortel/Rockstar, Google/Motorola deals create balance of terror on
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software patents</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Nortel/Rockstar, Google/Motorola deals create balance of terror on
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software patents</h1>
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<p newsteaser="yes">On Monday, the US Department of Justice approved the sale of
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Nortel's
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patent portfolio to a consortium led by Apple and Microsoft. At the same
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time, the DOJ and the European Commission allowed Google to buy
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Motorola Mobility, thus giving the search company a sizable patent
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portfolio.</p>
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<p>
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"We appreciate that competition authorities in the US and Europe continue to
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take software patents seriously as a risk to competition," says Karsten
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Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "However, we
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believe that the commitments made by Google, Microsoft and Apple regarding
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their patent licensing policies are not sufficient to allow everyone to compete
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on equal terms."
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</p>
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<p>
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The terms of those commitments do nothing to ensure that the software patents
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in the portfolios in question can be implemented in Free Software.
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</p>
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<p>
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While Microsoft has said that it will not seek injunctions against
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companies using its standard-essential patents, this policy merely restates
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the commitments Microsoft has already made to standards organisations.
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Microsoft will only license its patents on so-called "RAND" terms (short
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for "reasonable and non-discriminatory"). These typically require the
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company that implements the patents to pay a licensing fee per unit.
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</p>
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<p>
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Despite their name, such conditions are largely incompatible with Free
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Software based on <a href="http://fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">Open
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Standards</a>, standards which can be implemented by anyone in any business or
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software model. This means that Microsoft remains free to use its patents to
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block or harm some of its most important Free Software competitors, such as
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the GNU/Linux operating system and the LibreOffice productivity suite.
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</p>
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<p>
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"By greenlighting both the Google and Nortel transactions, the DOJ has merely
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created a balance of terror where patents are concerned," says Gerloff. "Small
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companies and individual software developers don't have the deep pockets
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required to play the patent litigation game. They will suffer as a result of
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this deal, along with the shareholders of Google, Microsoft and Apple.
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When elephants dance, the smaller wildlife gets crushed."
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</p>
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<p>
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FSFE submitted a comprehensive
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<a href="http://fsfe.org/projects/swpat/nortel.en.html">statement of
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concern</a> to the US Department of Justice in September 2011.
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</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag>front-page</tag>
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<tag>Free Software</tag>
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</tags>
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</html> |