
Microsoft pays licence fees for 74 smartphone patents - mfukar
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/08/microsoft_patents_acacia/
======
bradleyland
Normally, this story wouldn't even be news -- patent deals are cut all the
time -- but there's an obvious strategy being developed here. Microsoft has
identified patents as the most effective attack against anyone seeking to
profit from FOSS. Rather than attack FOSS directly, you dump as much money as
you can in to littering the intellectual property space for a given product
with patent mines. Step on a patent mine and all of the sudden you're paying
Microsoft (or someone else) for sitting on their ass and building a patent
portfolio rather than innovating with any real products.

Under the old rules of engagement, patents were the equivalent of nuclear
warheads. No one really wanted to use them, but they were good for making sure
that your buddies across the street didn't fire off a salvo of patent suits in
your direction. The problem for FOSS is that software patents are
ideologically reprehensible to most of the people involved, therefore patents
are not sought, and the intellectual property battlefield falls in to the
hands of the patent trolls and big corporations.

As things stand today, we're looking at a future where patents become a large
market in and of themselves. Big corporations will push for international
cooperation for patent enforcement, and up-and-coming companies who benefit
from FOSS are going to face significant new risks. The biggest losers will be
consumers. Virtually all of the new internet giants stand on the shoulders of
FOSS. It's only matter of time before the patent trolls find ways to attack
everyone using their "IP".

