Today’s Software Patent battle: Microsoft vs AT&T, Bush vs Clinton
The latest patent law sideshow is now playing out in a Washington DC court. Here’s the 30 second version: Microsoft stole IBM’s method for compressing audio and built in into their OS. Microsoft admits it’s wrong – but only in the US. Internationally, Microsoft takes it’s source code (burnt on a special disk nicknamed “The Golden Disk”) and ships it outside of the US as the master disk for manufacturing. It claims US patent laws can’t be applied to other countries – so it can’t be infringing AT&T patent there.
The interesting sideshow to this sideshow is that the lawyer representing AT&T used to be Clinton’s solicitor general. The lawyer representing Microsoft – Bush’s former solicitor general.
Implication to your highly prized UX design? Don’t save it on a golden disk!
source: Washigton Post
Tags: Microsoft, patents, golden-disk
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