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Microsoft and Patents Microsoft Corporation grew large and successful without patents, relying instead on copyright. Initially, Bill Gates was very critical of software patentability. However, as Microsoft began to play the game successfully, it became one of the staunchest supporters of software patentability. It has also been involved in promoting software patentability in Europe. Simultaneously Microsoft's has invested ample ressources into a campaign to dissuade governments and corporations from using free operating system. Patents have become an important part of this campaign.

Einführung Microsoft-Patente am Europäischen Patentamt (EPA) Kommentierte Verweise Einführung Microsoft Corporation grew large and successful without patents, relying instead on copyright. In 1991, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates warned that patents could bring the software market to a complete standstill and drive out small players. In 1994, Microsoft was the only software company at the USPTO hearings which spoke in favor of software patentability. Meanwhile, Microsoft had been stepping up efforts to build a patent portfolio to counter the much larger portfolios of traditional IT hardware companies such as IBM, HP, Canon etc. When the patent lawyers at the European Commission pressed for legalising software patents in Europe in 1997, they cited Microsoft as a success model, pointing out that Microsft already owned 400 software patents. In late 1998, an internal Microsoft stratgegy document about the "opensource threat" leaked out which suggested using software patents alongside with proprietary standards in order to crush competition from free software such as Apache and Linux. In 2000, Microsoft forced a free sofware project to abandon support for its patented video streaming format ASF. In 2001/07, in the midst of an ongoing campaign against free software, a leading MS executive challenged opensource companies to keep clear of Microsoft patents or else "Get your money and let's go to court!". In 2002/03 Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, declared that Microsoft's new standard DotNet was protected by patents and free implementations would not be allowed. In 2003/04 Microsoft published patent license terms for CIFS which disallow the use ore reimplementation of this communication architecture by GNU software. In late 2002, Microsoft began dissuade corproporate customers from introducing GNU/Linux by pointing out that if they use free software nobody would protect them from being sued for patent infringement. Meanwhile, Microsoft has largely abstained from public comments on European patent policies. In small-circle discussions at Vom Teufel geritten --- BITKOM e.V., where IBM patent lawyers pushed vocally for far-reaching patentability, the Microsoft representative remained almost silent but tacitly supported the IBM patent department's hard line. At another association, Verband der Software-Industrie e.V. (VSI) und Logikpatente, Microsoft's pro patent involvement was more overt. In France, Microsoft representatives have exerted pressure on associations such as Syntec Informatique not to oppose software patents. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) had Microsoft's full support when it worked on the software patentability directive for the European Commission (CEC), which the CEC adopted almost without modification. German Microsoft representatives have, as a part of their anti-Linux campaign of 2002 at the Federal Parliament, been asking politicians in Berlin to support the CEC/BSA directive proposal. One Microsoft paper circulating in Berlin based its arguments mainly on the TRIPs fallacy. Microsoft-Patente am Europäischen Patentamt (EPA) Kommentierte Verweise Steve Ballmer 2002-03-12: Kein Tänzchen an der Leine Heise-Bericht über Steve Ballmers Rede auf CeBit 2002. Bei einem Redeauftritt zusammen mit Bundeskanzler Schröder sagt Ballmer, Microsoft besitze zahlreiche Patente auf Aspekte des DotNet-Standards und beabsichtige, diese einzusetzen, um freie/quelloffene Umsetzungen von DotNet zu verhindern. U.a. sagt er: Auf die Öffnung des .NET-Framework angesprochen, kündigte Ballmer an, dass es sicherlich eine Common-Language-Runtime-Implementation für Unix geben werde, schränkte diese Entwicklung jedoch als Subset ein, der "nur für den akademischen Einsatz gedacht sei". Überlegungen zur Unterstützung freier .NET-Implementationen wie Mono erteilte Ballmer eine Absage: "Wir haben so viele Millionen in .NET gesteckt, wir haben so viele Patente auf .NET, die wir pflegen wollen." Microsoft 2001-07 to opensourcers: "Get your money and let's go to court"! News report about a public discussion at the "Open Source Convention" between Microsoft executive Craig Mundie and well known representatives of the free software community in July 2001. Asked by CollabNet CTO Brian Behlendorf whether Microsoft will enforce its patents against open source projects, Mundie replied, "Yes, absolutely." An audience member pointed out that many open source projects aren't funded and so can't afford legal representation to rival Microsoft's. "Oh well," said Mundie. "Get your money, and let's go to court." The article goes on to speculate that the Mono and Samba projects could be among the first victims of this Microsoft strategy. E.g. US Patent 5,719,941 - the "method for changing passwords on a remote computer" applies to a new password-changing feature in SMB which is necessary in order to maintain full interoperability between Microsoft clients and Linux fileservers in typical company networks. The article is hidden behind passwords, accessible only to subscribers. It is marked as written by Rachel Chalmers on 2001-08-08. 2001-07-24 Opensource Summit and Microsoft Discussion thread on this event, where the MS representative stated the intent of his company to use patents against free software. Pierre Bugnon: Petite Digression Microsoft France speaker explains that Microsoft is an innovative company and the proof of this is the number of 2110 US patents which Microsoft already owned by 2001-10-31. Microsoft verbietet GNU-Software Kommunikation mit CIFS-Anwendungen Anfang April 2002 gab Microsoft bekannt, dass die neue Spezifikation CIFS, die zu einem umfassenden Kommunikationsstandard werden soll, nicht von freier Software unter GNU GPL oder ähnlichen Lizenzen verwendet werden darf. Grundlage hierfür sind zwei US-Patente von Microsoft mit Stichtag 1989 bzw 1993, die ein weites Problemfeld der Rechnervernetzung ebenso wie einige in CIFS festgelegten Spezialfälle abdecken. Erste Untersuchungen zeigen, dass diese Patente keine EP-Entsprechung haben, d.h. vom Europäischen Patentamt (EPA) nicht erteilt wurden. Allerdings besitzt Micro§oft ein EP-Patent über verteiltes Bearbeiten von Dateien, welches ebenso dazu dienen könnte, Projekten wie Samba und Mono zu Leibe zu rücken. ASF: Urheberrechts-Neuregelung durch ein Patent Microsoft hat einem Programmierer freier Software verboten, Import/Export-Filter für sein Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) zu schreiben. Für Microsoft ist die Interoperabilität, um die es dem Programmierer ging, doppelt nachteilhaft: sie untergräbt nicht nur die Einschluss-Effekte, auf denen Microsofts Plattformstrategie beruht, sondern sie erlaubt auch die Umgehung des in ASF eingebauten Kopierschutzes, mit dem Microsoft die Inhaltsanbieter auf seine Plattform locken will. Anders als im Falle DeCSS ist nun gar kein Prozess und keine umstrittene Gesetzesnovelle (DMCA) mehr notwendig, um Privatkopien zu verbieten und das kollektive Gedächtnis zu beseitigen. Ein Softwarepatent tut es auch. Noam Chomsky on Microsoft and the rise of private tyrannies since Madison Microsoft patent on distributed file systems 1999 Microsoft: GPL destroys intellectual property A fairly well written article that gives a lot of space to Microsoft FUD about the "viral" nature of free software. Microsoft has been advocating this in more aggressive ways since 2000. They forget to mention that free software makes it easy to develop proprietary complements and the GPL doesn't forbid anything that proprietary software would allow. Microsoft patent on distributed file systems 1999 The Halloween Documents internal strategy papers from Microsoft, suggest that opensource software could be combatted by creating proprietary extensions to Internet protocols and by patent lawsuits. Heise 2002-12-14: Microsoft DRM Patent Microsoft-Betriebssysteme mit eingebauter Hintertür Microsoft Electronic Asset System Patent Microsoft P3P Patent This patent caused trouble for the W3C in 1999 Gates 2002-04: GPL will eat your economy GPL Pacman will eat your business, warns Gates Open source terror stalks Microsoft's lawyers Perens, Stallman, Raymond et al: Free Software leaders responding to Microsoft's FUD campaign The Microsoft Antitrust Trial and Free Software Microsoft honous Linux programmer with patent gong The Microsoft DRM Patent and our freedom to speak and think Gerhard Schröder Der "Genosse der Bosse" hat bekanntlich ein besonders offenes Ohr für die Einflüsterungen hoher Wirtschatsfunktionäre und insbesondere eine anhaltende Neigung, sich an Seite von Microsoft-Führungskadern öffentlich zu zeigen und stolz auf Partnerschaften mit MS zu sein. Seine Herkunft aus dem Anwaltsberuf, seine Orientierung an anglo-amerikanischen Vorbildern (bei relativer Distanz zu Frankreich) könnte für Software-Urheber und -anwender ebenfalls Anlass zu Sorge sein: in Frankreich fielen die Entscheidungen gegen Softwarepatente auf der Ebene des Premierministers. Bislang hat sich Schröder zum Thema Softwarepatente, soweit bekannt, nicht geäußert, aber sein Verhalten im Zusammenhang mit der Kopierschutzrichtlinie lässt wenig Verständnis für informationelle Infrastrukturen erwarten.