Barnes & Noble wants DOJ probe into Microsoft patent tactics
news.cnet.com
news.cnet.com
If the patents are trivial and outmoded then get them overturned. If not, be thankful that Microsoft is willing to license them to you. They have no obligation to license these with reasonable terms (which they seem to be), much less at all.
Another letter, from Barnes & Noble's general counsel, Eugene V. DeFelice, to James J. Tierney, chief of the Networks and Technology Enforcement Section in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, details Microsoft's method of pushing for a patent-licensing deal. DeFelice wrote that Microsoft accused Barnes & Noble of infringing on six patents at a July 2010 meeting.
"When Barnes & Noble asked Microsoft for more detailed information related to these patents, Microsoft refused, claiming that the information was confidential and could not be shared, unless Barnes & Noble first executed a nondisclosure agreement," DeFelice wrote.
This sound dangerously like a "I have a list of names" tactic. The patents have been filed and (I assume) granted. How B&N infringes on the publicly-known patents shouldn't be confidential - if we grant MS that, then what prevents a company from making it up?
The patents are public and so should be the allegations of infringement.
If this goes to court then it will be public, but until then companies have a legal right to conduct business in private.
You know how ludicrous this is. "You have done something wrong, but I won't tell you what".
This is how 6-year-olds do business. I expected Microsoft's legal to employ adults.
In theory, yes. In practice, this is infeasible.