Microsoft Patent Indemnification Not Worth Squat
Posted: Wed, 8 February 2006 | permalink | No comments
It seems that all of Microsoft's hoo-hah about patent indemnification and the associated attacks on Linux aren't even worth the electrons they're excited with.
According to an article in The Register, a patent infringement suit brought by a Guatemalan inventor has resulted in all users of newer versions of Microsoft Office needing to install a new, presumably non-infringing, version of the software next time they reinstall. Users who fail to do so "will no longer be covered by Microsoft's guarantee against patent infringement liability."
I don't see how this is any different to what you get with patent infringement in the FLOSS realm. Someone says "that code violates my patent rights", the developers reimplement to avoid infringing, users have to upgrade.
I'm just not seeing the difference here.
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