U.S. judge recommends banning the sale of Xbox 360

If anyone follows tech news you know company's always bicker and refuse to pay for other peoples technology. Well if you followed the news Microsoft stopped Motorola from releasing there android phone so for payback Motorola sued for WiFi and video codec patents.

They won in Germany now there facing a ban in the US.

Motorola and Microsoft have been tied up in a copyright battle for a while now over some Motorola WiFi and video codec patents used in the console, and U.S. Judge David Shaw has actually recommended against the continued sale of the Xbox 360 in the United States until the matter is resolved.

"Enforcing intellectual property rights outweighs any potential economic impact on video game console buyers," Shaw said according to IGN.

Microsoft is arguing that a sales ban would be unfair to consumers, while Shaw is of the opinion that companies like Sony and Nintendo could fill the videogame void for U.S. players.

Though Shaw has heard the case, the decision now falls to the International Trade Commission (ITC). The ITC is expected to make a formal decision in August.

If the ITC agrees with Shaw's ruling, the next stop is the White House, where President Barack Obama and his advisers will make the final call.

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I see no problem with this you steal someone else's work and don't pay them you deserve everything that happens. Something company's fail to realize. Time to fork up the cash Microsoft.

No fan of IP laws at all, but seeing who drew the first blood I say it seems like karma.

JemyM said:

No fan of IP laws at all, but seeing who drew the first blood I say it seems like karma.

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I couldn't agree more. Always bites you back in the end.

Not gonna happen. MS will find protection somewhere. They're too big to fail, and they're an American company.

The verdict in Germany had no consequences. MS had already shifted their distribution to another country. Imports are still allowed. Now every XBox 360 in Germany is an import from a nearby PAL country.

Gorath said:

Not gonna happen. MS will find protection somewhere. They're too big to fail, and they're an American company.

The verdict in Germany had no consequences. MS had already shifted their distribution to another country. Imports are still allowed. Now every XBox 360 in Germany is an import from a nearby PAL country.

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So its alright for a company to steal your technology make billions and not a pay a cent? Sometimes I wonder about politics and how certain company's get way with things.

When you make a product your supposed to check every patent or reverse engineer your own. Company's can sell the same product but it has to be different. I agree though nothing will come of it but you never know.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: the spirit of Mercantilism still exists.

I should point out too there's a discrepency between US, European and Japanese patent laws. In Europe and Japan its "first to file"; in the US you simply have to prove you invented it first.

Doesn't Europe have continent wide laws?

The EU has laws - but big, fat companies also have their lobyists.

This is the point where corporatism comes in - and that it is not impossible that our future really will be multi-national companies controlling everything and even making laws.

Through their lobbyists, this is reality even now.

And cynics say : This is the result of U.S. politics - to kind of "clone" their kind of markets into other countries.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Lucky Day said:

I've said it before, I'll say it again: the spirit of Mercantilism still exists.

I should point out too there's a discrepency between US, European and Japanese patent laws. In Europe and Japan its "first to file"; in the US you simply have to prove you invented it first.

Doesn't Europe have continent wide laws?

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Unfortunately, that is no longer the case… The Patent reform bill passed by congress and signed by Obama has changed the U.S. patent system, mirroring the standard of most other nations, to a first to file system.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-16/...t-to-file-system-patent-reform?_s=PM:POLITICS

-EDIT-

For further reading look up the America Invents Act, or AIA, to get the full disclosure on what has changed...

Microsoft is saying that, if the ban is put in place, consumers would only have one or two choices (depending on whether the Wii actually counts or not). That certainly wouldn't be good for consumers but I agree with the judge: you can't give them a free pass just because there isn't a lot of compitition. Especially not for an item that's deep in the luxury category of products.

I expect Microsoft will get word of whether or not they will get banned before the ruling and, if it's going against them, they'll just pay the royalties.

Or maybe we'll be seeing the next XBox out rather earlier than expected? Naaah, they wouldn't do that. Would they? Naaaaaaaah…. errr…. probably nah.

MasterKromm said:

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case… The Patent reform bill passed by congress and signed by Obama has changed the U.S. patent system, mirroring the standard of most other nations, to a first to file system.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-16/...t-to-file-system-patent-reform?_s=PM:POLITICS

-EDIT-

For further reading look up the America Invents Act, or AIA, to get the full disclosure on what has changed…

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ouch! that is too radical a change and a violation of the legal tradition in this country. It looks like it doesn't take affect until March of next year so expect it getting delayed - and even it getting thrown out possibly.

Each country in Europe has, as I understand it, different patent laws. And if, say a Danish inventor would need a patent in say France, Germany, and the Netherlands, and Belgium, he'll need to file a patent application in eahc country. The EU parliament and what is known as the EU-commission have suggested that a patent court (office) be established, so that say, Danish inventors have to apply for a patent for the whole at one place and not 4-6 places or 27 places at once.

As for the ongoing fight? between google and microsoft, the court should help them to sit down ans tlak instead of treating them like little 5 year old boys who've shouts I* invented this first* and then no, you didn't and yes, I did follows - and a lot of those...

More seriously, though, microsoft has probably invented something or made something very close or similar to what motorola has made - a long time ago.

And let's not forget that if Steve Jobs didn't steal - eh I mean - became inspired by a visit to IBM in the late 1970's, the whole computer-revolution with the graphical (menu) interface miught not have happened at all. And if Bill Gates didn't steal eh - got inspired by what Steve Jobs did at Apple in thhe mid to late 1980's, we might not have had what he have today in computers...

This just to say that all progress in technology come as a sharing of knowledge and how things are made - so it is our species and our societies have survives thus far.

Couchpotato said:

If anyone follows tech news you know company's always bicker and refuse to pay for other peoples technology. Well if you followed the news Microsoft stopped Motorola from releasing there android phone so for payback Motorola sued for WiFi and video codec patents.

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Where?

This just to say that all progress in technology come as a sharing of knowledge and how things are made - so it is our species and our societies have survives thus far.

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It's a balance, really. Sharing helps the whole world advance but, if you force too much sharing, then companies have no reason to invest in making new advances.

P.S. Wasn't it Xerox that started the graphical desktop?

aries100 said:

And let's not forget that if Steve Jobs didn't steal - eh I mean - became inspired by a visit to IBM in the late 1970's, the whole computer-revolution with the graphical (menu) interface miught not have happened at all. And if Bill Gates didn't steal eh - got inspired by what Steve Jobs did at Apple in thhe mid to late 1980's, we might not have had what he have today in computers…

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Just for clarification, Jobs discovered the GUI interface when he visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the early 80's. Xerox didn't invent the graphic user interface either - that, and the mouse for it, were invented at Stanford in the 1960's. Additionally, the laser printer they invented was copier with the cuts ripped out, and the network card was a mainframe batch sharing device adapted to PC. They did invent Smalltalk however, the first Object Oriented language - but arguably the concepts there already existed in Simula.

Lucky Day said:

ouch! that is too radical a change and a violation of the legal tradition in this country. It looks like it doesn't take affect until March of next year so expect it getting delayed - and even it getting thrown out possibly.

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It's more of a technical change than a practical one. While technically it has been first to invent, first to file has generally been the practice, just look Bell and Gray in regards to the telephone patent. Same with a large portion of Edison's patents.