patents

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Apple's 3D OS X interface unveiled

A series of Apple patent filings reveal Apple's new possible multi-dimensional interface for Mac OS X that could make better use of screen real estate by increasing the number of virtual surfaces capable of housing application and interface elements. The most extensive of the filings, titled "Multi-Dimensional...

Tags: 3D, Apple Macintosh, Apple Inc., Apple Mac OS X, Apple Mac OS, Operating Systems, Desktops, Software, Hardware, Apple, patents, news, Andrew Nusca

Image galleries 2008-12-11

Gallery: 10 Apple patents to watch

Silicon.com has rounded up and rated 10 of the most interesting and absurd patent applications submitted by Apple in recent years. by ZDNet

Tags: Patent, Apple Inc., ZDNet, Apple, patent, iPhone, iPod, Mac, MacBook, patents

Image galleries 2008-10-30

Patent auction nets millions for inventors

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos checks out the Ocean Tomo Spring IP Patent auction in San Francisco, where buyers snapped up $19.6 million worth of patents. While critics say these patents will fuel lawsuits, inventors say it's a good way to get recognition for the work they've...

Tags: News, michael kanellos, patents, ip, auction

Videos 2008-04-07

Microsoft patent FUD working against Linux, says new study

Looks like Microsoft's FUD campaign against Linux and open source is paying off, according to a new IDC study. Matthew Lawton, director of IDC's Worldwide Software Business Strategies Group, revealed some interesting tidbits from the non-public study in a conference call this week:The potential for copyright and patent infringement is...

Tags: Patents, Microsoft, Linux, Licenses, General, Community, Commercial

Blog posts 2007-08-02

The UK's triumph of good sense

As reported on Tuesday on Ars Technica, the British government recently decided not to extend copyright protection beyond 50 years. Music industry lobbyists wanted to extend protections to 95 years. The committee charged with analyzing UK Intellectual Property laws, however, were actually inclined to REDUCE copyright protections, though bowed to...

Tags: Economic Policy, Digital Media, Patents

Blog posts 2007-07-26

Another IBM patent dump

IBM has made another patent dump, this time granting universal access to over 150 patents meant to assure that software can interoperate.I'm certain people will complain IBM is only doing this for its own corporate advantage. The patents were previously available without royalties, but now IBM is promising not to...

Tags: Development, General, IBM, Legal, Patents, Strategy

Blog posts 2007-07-12

Microsoft ups ante on GPLv3 in apparent challenge to license's reach

Any attempt to tag Microsoft as being "it" on its support coupons for Novell SUSE Linux, and therefore now fall under the terms of the new open source license, will apparently be fought ... or at least sidestepped.Despite assertions that the new GPLv3 released June 29 closes loopholes with GPLv2,...

Tags: GPL, Intellectual Property, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source, Patents, SaaS, Software Infrastructure, Windows

Blog posts 2007-07-06

Reuse of code is the key to keeping IBM from being a 500,000-employee company

Nice piece in the The New York Times today about how IBM is again re-inventing itself as the "blended IT provider." Those are my words. IBM is seeking the means to blend talents, technologies, locations, approaches, people-process, and -- above all -- applications and services.After attending a few IBM conferences...

Tags: Web Services, Virtualization, Software Infrastructure, Software Development, SOA, SAP, SaaS, Patents, Oracle, Microsoft, Intellectual Property, IBM, HP, GPL, Enterprise 2.0

Blog posts 2007-07-05

It's finished. It's done. GPVv3 that is.

Why is this GNU smiling?Because with a political flourish the Free Software Foundation has released the final versions of both GPLv3 and LGPLv3.IBM has given its blessing but there is, as yet, no white smoke rising from Portland, where Linus Torvalds has expressed his preference for GPLv2.The new license makes an...

Tags: Software Licensing, Patents, Linux, Legal, GPL, Google, FOSS

Blog posts 2007-07-02

Sun demurs from adopting GPL v3 for OpenSolaris, keeps CDDL only

I wonder what that was all about. I mean the last dozen months of Sun Microsystems seemingly interested in and participating in the definitions of GPL v3, only to come out now that GPL v3 is defined to say they will stick to CDDL for OpenSolaris and for now GPL...

Tags: Windows, Sun Microsystems, Software Infrastructure, Red Hat, Patents, Open Source, Microsoft, Linux, Intellectual Property, IBM, GPL, Enterprise Java, Apache

Blog posts 2007-06-30

Linspire, Microsoft and aircraft carriers

As was widely reported yesterday, Linspire has signed a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft that gives the company access to a heap of Microsoft technology, as well as seals a patent moratorium between users of Linspire products and Microsoft. Of note is the fact that patents was not likley to play...

Tags: Microsoft, Open Source, Patents

Blog posts 2007-06-15

Novell reveals Microsoft's open source strategy

Novell today announced Open Workgroup, a basic Linux set-up for small-to-medium businesses.In doing this Novell also revealed Microsoft's open source strategy.It's a defensive game. Microsoft has channels covering all areas of the market. Now, when those channels need an open source solution, there's something they can point to.While it's amusing...

Tags: FOSS, General, Google, GPL, Legal, Linux, Microsoft, Patents, politics, Strategy

Blog posts 2007-06-15

Once upon a time: Bill Gates, patent reformer

The case for patent reform for software is cogently laid out by Timothy Lee in a recent New York Times opinion piece. He shows that Microsoft - currently a leading proponent of software patents, with 6,000 to its name - sang a very different tune in 1991 when it was...

Tags: Patents

Blog posts 2007-06-13

Peer-to-Patent site relies on public for prior art

Taking the patents to the people could be the new motto for the US Patent and Trademark Office. Beta News reports that the patent office will launch a new website to allow citizens to evaluate the validity of patent applications.The idea behind the change is to have the Peer-to-Patent website...

Tags: Patents

Blog posts 2007-06-12

What is Microsoft really gaining from open source FUD?

In all the stories about Microsoft's attack on open source, I have seen little talk about what the company is gaining in all this.I don't think it's money. Despite press reports that companies like Xandros or LG are paying a "Linux tax" to Microsoft, on net dollars don't seem heading...

Tags: Strategy, politics, Patents, Microsoft, management, Legal, IBM, gaming, Development

Blog posts 2007-06-08

Xandros deal is Microsoft water torture strategy

Long-time readers of this blog may remember how two years ago I sat down to lunch with Marc Fleury, then running JBoss.Fleury was celebrating because he'd signed a re-sale agreement with Microsoft. The deal was superior to one IBM offered, he told me, in that it did not interfere with his...

Tags: Strategy, resellers, Patents, Microsoft, management, Linux Server OS, Linux Desktop OS, Linux, Legal, Enterprise Policy, Distributions

Blog posts 2007-06-05

Microsoft teams with Xandros as it faces a potentially wider open source software protection under GPLv3

We could be at the "send lawyers, guns, and money" moment in the Microsoft-loves-Linux saga begun last fall with the infamous Novell deal. If this ends up in legal limbo -- who benefits most?A long, drawn out legal collision might thwart Microsoft's purported aim to help its Windows users better...

Tags: Windows, Software Infrastructure, Patents, Open Source, Microsoft, management, Linux, Intellectual Property, GPL, .NET

Blog posts 2007-06-04

The power to route around bottlenecks

The most vital trait shared by the Internet and open source is the ability to route around bottlenecks.If there is a problem on a router between your PC and this item, the Internet Protocol will find another way. Thus the network increases in redundancy and robustness as it grows.Open source...

Tags: telecom, Patents, mobile, Microsoft, mass market, Legal, Internet, Google, General, BSD, Applications

Blog posts 2007-06-04

The crux of the GPL problem

Last Friday, I wrote a piece describing why I wouldn't use GPLv3 software. As some pointed out, most of my complaints centered around the fact that I would never use a GPLv3 product as part of a development project, as I mostly opposed two things: a) that I...

Tags: Software Infrastructure, Programming, Patents, Open Source

Blog posts 2007-06-04

Top 5 myths of GPLv3 dispelled (part 1)

Now that the "Final Draft" of the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3) is out and we're 30 days away from the official published version, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at some of the least well understood provisions in the license. These...

Tags: Programming, Patents, Linux, Licenses, General, Community, Commercial

Blog posts 2007-06-04