Microsoft/Novell

[Colin McGregor]

--- Mike Kallies <mike.kallies-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 11/7/06, Alex Beamish <talexb-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> ...
> > And the best result would be that any suit that
> Microsoft launches will
> > prompt the USPTO to get their act together and be
> made to realize that it's
> > ridiculous to patent something like FAT, how to
> make a cursor by inverting
> > the image at a particular screen location, or
> one-click shopping (the Amazon
> > patent).
> 
> I've been wondering if the OEM copies of Windows
> which MS thrusts on
> everyone with their machines gives everyone rights
> to use just about
> any patented methods MS could think up.

Well, as software can NOT be patented in Canada this
(at least for NOW) is a non-issue here in Canada. As
for the U.S. situation, we can start with the folks
who (like me) roll their own "white box" no-name PC
clones, and who did NOT get Windows included with
their PCs (I did buy a copy of Windows 98 when it was
new, and I did get a free copy of Windows Server 2003
at a Microsoft sponsored event last year (good food,
lousy sales pitch :-) )). Still, I have fewer copies
of Windows than I have PCs (not an issue given that
most of my computers do not (or in the case of my Sun
Sparc box can not) run MS Windows).

Beyond that ownership of a product from company X does
not give you the right to infringe on patent Y. For
example, the fact that you may own an IBM keyboard
does NOT mean you can legally use an IBM patent for
say a milling machine without first clearing it with
IBM (and making some sort of licence deal).

So, assuming Microsoft were saints (and we know they
are in reality ANYTHING but) everything they sold
would  be:

- Covered by patents held by Microsoft
- Covered by patents held by someone else, but with
whom Microsoft had worked out some sort of licence
deal.
- Covered by patents which have expired and are now in
the public domain.

> I can use FAT through Windows.  The copyright and
> the patent aren't
> linked, so I should be able to use the FAT patent
> any way I want.
> 
> -Mike
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