If You Can’t Beat ‘Em … Sue ‘Em?
I just read the latest news about Microsoft and it just adds to my angst for the company (they’ve been on my blacklist of companies for 10 years). Reuters this morning reported:
“Microsoft signed a deal with Novell, one of the providers of Linux, in which Novell paid it a lump sum in return for a guarantee that Microsoft would not sue Novell’s clients for what it calls a violation of its own patents in the Linux program.”
So now, Microsoft will let you pay them for free software. These companies don’t pay for anything other than the guarantee that Microsoft won’t turn around and sue their clients for using Linux.
Wow.
Looks like Redmond is the big bully now, if you hadn’t already thought so. They’re just roaming around threatening litigation on people. They likely wouldn’t win these “patent infringement” cases anyway; back in the 80s, they duked the same battle out with Apple over the same thing, but at that time, they were on the other side claiming you couldn’t patent the idea of a place to dump your files (”recycle bin” vs. “trash can”). And as you know, Microsoft won the case: they could copy core elements of Apple’s patented operating system. Now they want to threaten others that producing GUI elements is a violation of their own patents.
Why are they going about it this way? Because they know that when the chips fall, they wouldn’t win. So they sell the “you don’t have to go to court at all” scenario cause that’s all they can get.
Ethically, what a travesty. Using the court system, making threats, and converting it into cash is more like the mafia than reputable businesses. Or have we gotten so low that when we can’t beat a competitor, we just sue them for whatever we can drum up?
If you take your cues from Microsoft, remember this new principle they’ve added to the strategy books: if you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em.
