An Arizona judge has ruled that Microsoft infringed on display and printing technology patents, which could result in a jury decision amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, according to court documents obtained by Reuters.
Research Corporation Technologies, based in Tucson, Ariz., had alleged that Microsoft was using its patented technologies in its Windows and Office software products. The technology in question involve halftones, which are used to display images on computer screens and to print them without distortion. Senior U.S. District Judge William Browning ruled on Tuesday that Microsoft had infringed on four of RCT's patents. He granted a request for summary judgment by RCT, paving the way for jury trial. Microsoft had opposed the summary judgment motion. The world's largest software maker, a frequent target of litigation, said that it would fight the case in court. "We are disappointed in the ruling and believe there was no infringement of the technology in question, which was developed by Microsoft engineers," said Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler. "We will continue to contend that the patents are invalid."
News source: C|Net News.com
Research Corporation Technologies, based in Tucson, Ariz., had alleged that Microsoft was using its patented technologies in its Windows and Office software products. The technology in question involve halftones, which are used to display images on computer screens and to print them without distortion. Senior U.S. District Judge William Browning ruled on Tuesday that Microsoft had infringed on four of RCT's patents. He granted a request for summary judgment by RCT, paving the way for jury trial. Microsoft had opposed the summary judgment motion. The world's largest software maker, a frequent target of litigation, said that it would fight the case in court. "We are disappointed in the ruling and believe there was no infringement of the technology in question, which was developed by Microsoft engineers," said Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler. "We will continue to contend that the patents are invalid."
News source: C|Net News.com
Gal Saloman, chief executive of Discretix, told The Register that 12-15 handsets feature its crypto technology. These devices include phones from Sony Ericsson and other manufacturers, some of which will be declared publicly during the forthcoming 3GSM conference.
Over the last year mobile operators have become more interesting in selling content over mobile phones, providing access to corporate calendaring and performing firmware upgrades over the air. This requirement has led to a need to hardware-based security from handset manufacturers.
Without improvements in security the industry risks repeating the cracks to games for Nokia NGage the accompanied the high-profile release of the integrated phone / gaming device last year, Saloman warned. NGage's protection technology was software based and therefore less secure than a hardware-based system, Discretix argues.
Discretix is a member of the Symbian Platinum Program and its technology also supports Linux. Saloman said Discretix is "still waiting for its first Microsoft customer".
"We'd love to help but we're not seeing much traction in the market," he added.
Discretix also provides security technology for PDAs and storage cards. By contrast to mobile phones this is an area where demand for Discretix' security technology for Microsoft-based devices is far more tangible.
Even if Microsoft engineers did develop a similar or identical technology on their own, that's no excuse for not reviewing other people's patents a little closer before releasing it. For example, if Microsoft develops a "3 prong whatsidoodle" and RCT makes a "3 prong whatsidoodle" and patents it first, Microsoft should have done more research and went, "Well crap... RCT already patented one of these..."
Makes sense, doesn't it?
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