Microsoft, Novell, and "Clone Product" Lawsuits 156
El_Oscuro writes "The MS/Novell deal specifically excludes patent protection for "clone products." In the agreement, a clone product is broadly defined as "a product (or major component thereof) of a Party that has the same or substantially the same features and functionality as a then-existing product (or major component thereof) of the other Party ... and that has the same or substantially the same user interface, or implements all or substantially all of the Application Programming Interfaces of the Prior Product." The text of the clone product definition subsections is very cumbersome to read, but it specifically mentions OpenOffice, Wine, and OpenXchange by name without asserting that they are necessarily clone products."
In other words... (Score:5, Insightful)
*Rolls Eyes* (Score:3, Insightful)
Come to mention it, if such an agreement were widespread, how would anyone ever create a better product, since by the very virtue of the fact that you need to recreate some of the functionality to improve upon it.
Sigh, I feel as if a thousand lawyers screamed out in delight when they wrote that clause in...
Magic Beans (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Windows Clone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides, what "new computing concept" have they come up with?
I used Word Perfect before there was an MS Word
I used visi-calc before there was an Excel.
I can't think of one piece of software that was written by MS that wasn't written somewhere else first. I could be wrong, however.
Unless they're talking about "look and feel", which I won't comment on.
the word they're looking for (Score:5, Insightful)
"We will not sue you for patent infringement as long as your products are not similar to ours."
Re:In other words... (Score:2, Insightful)
And so began the Clone Wars (Score:2, Insightful)
But, even if they lost the wars and were betrayed like the Jedi were, they knew that the Force would ultimately prevail, for Information wanted to be Free!
Is there any relevance? (Score:5, Insightful)
My question is, "What difference does the agreement make?"
M$ could possibly sue Novel, et.al., before the agreement was signed. Now, M$ is out $40M, and still could possibly sue Novel, et. al. The possibility of M$ winning such a lawsuit remains as remote as it was before. It appears that the $40M was simply the cost of a publicity stunt. Wouldn't another fake grassroots campaign have been more effective?
Re:Windows Clone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this the Microsoft "innovation" you are talking about?
LoB