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Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Nothing worth doing is easy.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

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Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Apple V. Microsoft

Apple V. Microsoft

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If you listen to my friends who use Macs, this story is the Apple v. Microsoft story in a microcosm:

Apple Computer may be forced to pay royalties to Microsoft for every iPod it sells after it emerged that Bill Gates’s software giant beat Steve Jobs’ firm in the race to file a crucial patent on technology used in the popular portable music players. The total bill could run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Although Apple introduced the iPod in November 2001, it did not file a provisional patent application until July 2002, and a full application was filed only in October that year.

In the meantime, Microsoft submitted an application in May 2002 to patent some key elements of music players, including song menu software.

Apple creates something everyone loves, Microsoft makes the money off of it.

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8Comments

  1. 1.

    jerry

    How coincidental that your Rethuglican President gutted the anti-trust settlement in November 2001.

  2. 2.

    Alan

    One can only hope that in the process of the ensuing legal battle they will successfully nullify some of each others’ music-player-related patents.

    Like Apple’s patent on the wheel.

    (sigh)

  3. 3.

    Demdude

    I work in the IT Industry. Microsoft is famous for “partnering ” with a company, gaining advantage from the relationship, dumping the partner, then claiming anything out of the relationship as their own.

    My brother (also in IT) and I refer to Microsoft as the “Evil Empire”.

    “Resistence is futile, you will be assimilated”.

  4. 4.

    Rome Again

    Although Apple introduced the iPod in November 2001, it did not file a provisional patent application until July 2002, and a full application was filed only in October that year.

    Well gee, THAT was stupid. If you snooze, you lose.

    Sloppy players don’t get my sympathy, sorry. Steve Jobs and Apple should have known better. They’ve been at war with Microsoft for ages, they should have seen this coming.

  5. 5.

    Horshu

    The entire software is going through a phase of intense patenting in order to protect IP. It isn’t so much offensive as it is defensive; Microsoft itself has been sued for close to a billion dollars for patent violations over the last several years. It’s a problem with the industry that stems from patents being more comprehensive and powerful than copyrights. Because “everyone is doing it,” no company can really afford not to aggressively patent. The true problem is not MS or Real or Apple or IBM, but rather the patent system itself. There is a HUGE need to reform the US patent system (and it is going to get worse as international corporations get burned more) that needs to be rectified by improving “prior art” defenses and strengthening the copyright system.

  6. 6.

    Defense Guy

    Apple creates something everyone loves, Microsoft makes the money off of it.

    Yep, history has never shown us this before. The list of companies Microsoft has screwed is enormous and this isn’t Apples first screwing. What exactly was Apple thinking? It’s not like they didn’t know there were sharks in the water.

  7. 7.

    demimondian

    Apple creates something everyone loves, Microsoft makes the money off of it.

    (Ob disc: I work for Microsoft. I do not speak for my employer.)

    This is a classic example of “read the rest of the story”. The two patents are rather different and cover rather different ground. Microsoft’s patent covers a statistical method for generating a play list of “songs you might like” on a small device. Apple’s covers the particular UI for the iPod. I haven’t studied either document in detail, so I don’t understand why the patent examiner felt that the Microsoft patent undermined the Apple patent, but, either way, the Microsoft work had been in process for a long time prior to the submission of the patent, and had nothing whatsoever to do with the iPod.

  8. 8.

    demimondian

    FWIW: John, here’s a good summary of the differences between the two patents. The Register is a notorious anti-Microsoft site, so the fact that the it doesn’t particularly think the case os strong should say something.

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