There will be some who will treat this claim by Microsoft as bragging and nothing else but the fact that it is software giant Microsoft that has spent billions of dollars in developing technologies like Linux suggests that there may be some truth behind this statement. It is true that the right to own technologies is being decided on the basis of patents in favor of one or the other company in law courts these days. Companies spend billions of dollars to produce new technologies, and then they have to protect it from being used by others. When this technology is used by other companies, they feel that they should be compensated for their investment.
Apple goes after Samsung
This is why we see Apple suing Samsung for violating its design of iPad in its most successful product Galaxy tab while software giant Microsoft is suing Google for making blatant use of its Linux technology in making Android OS. Recently Microsoft has made headlines by challenging companies using its patented Linux technologies in their products, and Google’s Android OS falls in this category.
Microsoft suing many companies
Software giant Microsoft has even sued Barnes and Noble for using its patented innovations in making its e-book readers. The defense counsel of Microsoft, Horacio Gutierrez, in a recent interview said that many companies making devices like e-book readers and smartphones and tablets have all violated intellectual property rights of software giant Microsoft as they have evolved using pre existing platforms on which Microsoft spent billions of dollars to develop.
The counsel said that when an end consumer buys a product, he is not aware of cross licensing and licensing without which the product would not have come into existence in the first place and he just enjoys the product without thinking about these things.
Linux is at the core of claims made by Microsoft
However, the claim by Horacio Gutierrez that Android OS developed by Google for mobiles is a violation of patents of Microsoft because Google has made use of Linux technologies, seems to be too far fetched and does not seem to have gone down well with the experts worldwide.
