

Microsoft buys Netscape patents from AOL as part of $1 billion deal - yahelc
http://allthingsd.com/20120409/attention-marc-andreessen-microsoft-just-bought-part-of-netscape/

======
SeoxyS
It kind of blows my mind that patents can possibly be worth north of a millon
dollars apiece. How is this possible? How does it make economic sense,
especially the idea of buying 800 bundled together instead of picking and
choosing the ones which actually have value.

I get that they win litigation, but is even the loss of a lawsuit more costly
than the amount spent on purchasing the patents? The most costly lawsuit loss
I can recall was Microsoft's antitrust loss, which cost it 9 figures. But even
so, that's a case where patents would not have helped. And if it costs more to
buy the patents than they recoup with when they win, or do not lose, the
suits, how does it make economic sense to buy them?

Then again, maybe they're considering it an investment in their ongoing
campaign to extort the android ecosystem.

~~~
Retric
Try 1.67 BILLION for a single patent. _The jury’s verdict allowed $1.17
billion in lost profits and $504 million in royalties._

<http://www.hgexperts.com/article.asp?id=6726>

------
signalsignal
Here comes the leviathan. I don't know what effect this will eventually have
on Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, but I'm certain it will be good.

~~~
tesseractive
I doubt they're coming after Chrome and Firefox. Given that they've never sued
Linux directly (only companies that sell products with Linux bundled -- e.g.
Tom Tom), they don't seem to have any interest in going after free software
(or just freeware in general) directly.

More likely, this is to strengthen their case in the mobile patent wars, given
that every smartphone comes with a bundled browser. In particular, they have
an ongoing dispute with Motorola.

~~~
bergie
This is the more cunning way. Something like Linux would be hard to sue, and
people would be faster to notice and cry foul. By picking your targets
carefully you can efficiently make the whole industry scared to use an
'undesired' technology. Expect more of this, especially in mobile.

~~~
tesseractive
It's not just about scaring people away from technologies. Microsoft's Android
patent licensing is a multi-billion dollar business in its own right.

------
billybob
Two snarky comments are fighting in my head.

Comment 1: "Microsoft's buying patents for a long-defunct browser demonstrates
once again that these are solely legal weapons, not bits of useful knowledge
to help make products."

Comment 2: "I don't know, maybe IE is just that far behind."

------
ollerac
I bet the first line of the deal was: "Don't fuck with us anymore please."

------
TazeTSchnitzel
So now they will be suing Mozilla?

~~~
gcp
The Netscape Public License included a patent grant. So that's probably not
possible. They might sue anybody not based off Netscape code, though...

------
loverobots
Microsoft is already loaded with patents, my guess is that want to cover their
bases even more and probably go after Google (Motorola forced them to move out
of Germany)

