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With the recent many posts about Microsoft I've seen several people accuse MS of this.

I don't remember patent trolling being in the laundry list from my days reading Slashdot. Can anyone shed some light on what these comments may be referring to?



I think what they are probably referring to is the patent tax that is paid for every Android phone:

https://gigaom.com/2014/06/16/patents-that-fuel-microsofts-a...

But that does not make Microsoft is not a patent troll[1], since it also produces hardware/software that it is covered by the same patents. Whether patents are any good is a different discussion.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll


Interesting. I hadn't heard about that.

How much is known overall about the 'taxes' that the mobile players pay each other? The lawsuit timeline is pretty crazy: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_patent_wars


Jonathan Schwartz of Sun has many blog posts about Microsoft using patent trolling as a licensing negotiation tactic.

Also, SCO vs. IBM (which Microsoft helped bankroll).




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