Torvalds: Microsoft is bluffing on patents

[praka123]

Microsoft's aggressive defense of its intellectual property, which includes claims that Linux violates a number of its patents, is nothing more than "a marketing thing," according to Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel.

They have been sued for patents by other people, but I don't think they've -- not that I've gone through any huge amount of law cases -- but I don't think they've generally used patents as a weapon," Torvalds said. "But they're perfectly happy to use anything at all as fear, uncertainty and doubt in the marketplace, and patents is just one thing where they say, 'Hey, isn't this convenient? We can use this as a PR force.'"

Torvalds made the comments during the second half of an interview conducted by the Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin on Oct. 16. The foundation is expected to make the rest of the interview publicly available on its Web site Monday. The foundation released the initial portion of the interview in January.



"Another reason why I don't think Microsoft really seriously would go after patents is when you're a convicted monopolist in the marketplace you really should not be suing your competitors over patents," Torvalds continued. "I think that most Microsoft lawyers would say, 'You know, let's not do that; that sounds insane'."



Microsoft's recent work around improving its platform's interoperability with Linux left Torvalds largely unmoved.


"I think there are people inside Microsoft who really want to improve interoperability and I also think there are people inside Microsoft who would much rather just try to stab their competition in the back," he said. "I think the latter class of people have usually been the one[s] who won out in the end, but -- so I wouldn't exactly trust them."


Microsoft spokespeople on Friday declined to comment on Torvalds' remarks. The company has said it believes that Linux infringes on its intellectual property, although it has been criticized for not being more precise with its allegations.


read full article here:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...uffing-on.html

[NucleusKore]

Originally Posted by praka123

Microsoft spokespeople on Friday declined to comment on Torvalds' remarks. The company has said it believes that Linux infringes on its intellectual property, although it has been criticized for not being more precise with its allegations.

Can't be precise about something when there isn't anything to be precise about
We saw their claims fall flat with the SCO Unix case which was backed by them.

[The Unknown]

Steve wants that people should use win32 only. huh its not possible in this world (it may be possible in his dreamland ). win32 sucks.