back to article Microsoft takes Oracle side in Google Java-phone attack

Microsoft has jumped on Oracle's prosecution of Google to attack Android and promote Windows Phone 7, while revealing a limited US rollout for its mobile phone platform. Even before Android's day in court, the chief financial officer of Microsoft's mobile phone group is reported to have taken Android's patent infringements as …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oooo, this is a suprise...

    NOT!

    Microsoft sides with someone who, if successful, will benefit Microsoft. After the dust settles M$ will probably resume its rivalry with Oracle... probably on the Office front first, probably with patent infringement claims, and when tat fight dies down they can then move on to attack the database.

    1. Mark Cathcart
      Jobs Halo

      Database, really?

      I don't know what patent portfolio sharing agreements MS has with Oracle, but I'd like to hear from you what on earth you think MS has patents on in the DB field that it could challenge Oracle on...

      with the IP that Oracle previoulsy had, and that which they picked up with SUN, its hard to imagine anything except the other way around, Oracle pursuing MS over DB IP/Patents. But then again maybe your assertion is right, its just your logic thats wrong...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Hmmm..

        You don't know what patent portfolio sharing agreements MS has with Oracle (if any) and I don't know what patents MS has in the database field, so we're both ignorant.

        My logic though is sound, M$ is backing Oracle to help themselves by playing a supportive role in an attack on Google. A later attack on Oracle also makes sense since OOo and MySQL are direct competitors with MS Office and MS SQL, how that attack would proceed is unknown, but litigation would appear the be the tool of the day.

  2. rogerpjr

    Same game.. MicroShaft ( F)ear, U(ncertainty) D(oubt)!!!!!!

    Look, everyone. M$S*/?ft is doing the SAME thing that has WORKED in the past:

    Most famous was what they did to of ALL companies IBM with their SUPERIOR O/S 2 VS Win 98. Just think weak DOS BASED!!!! Win 98. We the public BOUGHT MS*/ft crap and LIES!!!

    Question.... ARE WE GONNA DO IT AGAIN?????

    MS/*T IS NOTORIOUS!!!!!!

    They are AS BAD OR WORSE THAN Nvidia, and iNtel combined in terms of lying.

    Apple PALES in comparison.

    Letś STOP these LYING trouble-making RASCALS....

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Didn't see that coming

    "Microsoft has jumped on Oracle's prosecution of Google to attack Android and promote Windows Phone 7"

    Well there's a surprise. :)

    1. Ian Michael Gumby

      Really?

      No surprises there.

      Essentially Google is trying to do an 'end run' around Java's licensing which Microsoft had tried and got their pee-pee spanked by Sun over the same issue. So what's good for the goose must be good for the gander.

      In short, Microsoft is going to cry foul if Google gets away with their 'cheat' and then has a leg up on the competition. (Licensing costs are passed on to the consumer...)

  4. Roger Stenning
    Gates Horns

    Judge, Jury, and Executioner?

    So, Macro$haft are jumping on the bandwagon with a "guilty" verdict before the trial, eh? Why am I not surprised?

    Wonder if they can be had for attempting to pervert the course of justice?

  5. M Gale
    Grenade

    Microsoft throwing FUD.

    Who could have guessed?

  6. Nexox Enigma

    MS has hidden costs too...

    I find that the cost to replace all the hardware that I smash and/or defenestrate when an MS product just won't do what I tell it to do starts to add up pretty quickly. Configuration via 'Wizard' is irritating, slow, and mostly useless, but when the wizard doesn't do what it said, or when I need to re-run it 11 times, it's hard keep all my input devices stationary and on my desk.

    When OSS software breaks, I have the option of trying to fix it, which, if nothing else, distracts me effectively.

  7. JaitcH
    WTF?

    Sour Grapes or Counting the Chicks before they hatch?

    Microsoft, by any measure, has lost the momentum it had with portable intelligent devices and is obviously using every thing it can dream up to disrupt any competitor sales. Android is a winner which is more than MS can claim for it's mobile applications.

    Prejudging any court decision is a fools game. Microsoft should know, it has been found to have stolen other entities I.P. including the name "Internet Explorer", hard drive software and, famously, XML.

    If MS was smart, Bulmer would tell this guy to shut up. He'll lose enough 'face' when he has to pay the Canadian company for the stolen software. At least Google wrote the software in dispute, MS just plagiarised their software.

  8. Tom 35

    The enemy of my enemy is my friend

    Sounds like Microsoft is staying true to form.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Ugh

    Yes and Microsoft's number 1 fanboi has done that a long time ago too:

    http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2010/Aug-13.html

  10. Vic

    Well, I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

    A company standing to make money by you not buying its competitors products says its competitors products are bad for you.

    *shakes head in disbelief*

    Vic.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    and when the case comes out in favor of Google

    Will they be able to go after this guy for libel?

    Maybe Google should buy Oracle, they can use the first part of Google's name "Goog", and the last part of Oracle's name "le" to form Google.

  12. amehaye
    Headmaster

    Interesting

    If Google infringes Oracle patents, than so does Microsoft. They, too, have a virtual machine running a Java clone on their phones.

  13. Jean-Luc
    Gates Horns

    he he he

    Now if only several buses were to run over the iOS dev teams. And if a meteor were to hit to hit the BSD dev teams. And, and...

    Then maybe, somewhere, someone would care about Windows Phone 7.

    >>It is an investment period. We are very conscious that we do need to create a business here.

    >>We can't be in investment mode forever,

    I really don't see why. Almost of M$ is an investment boutique funded from Windows and Office. Since years and years. Oh and from the suckers who bought in @ 50$/share.

    Oh, wait, XBox probably generates money.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Poor poor Microsoft

    ...and all their limited resources. I guess they haven't gotten any better with their spaghetti-code/hairball approach to development. I'm just going to call it a hunch that Google and Apple probably have less people working on Android and iOS than Microsoft has working on Mobile 7, and they're putting out point releases at least every 6 months and major releases every year to year and a half.

    Not saying that more is better, but damn... Microsoft is SLOOOW. After what, 2 years all Microsoft can come up with is an incomplete rollout? How sad :/

    The real question is if this is going to be a ME/Vista or an XP/7. So far things seem to look more like Vista in my reading of it.

    ...Oh, and no surprise around their support of Oracle. Just surprised it took them this long.

  15. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Welcome

    Serial rapist and drug dealer seen pushing his crap wares in pimp avenue

    Film at 11.

  16. Volker Hett

    MS might not be safe, too

    As Sun has hinted, C# and .NET might be in violation of several Java related patents, probably balanced out with some Office patents Staroffice is in violation with.

  17. The Other Steve
    Gates Halo

    Uncle Fester

    is an even bigger whiny bitch than Gates was.

  18. Chris Gray 1
    Unhappy

    Business Plan

    Someone working for these large for-profit corporations a few years back definitely deserves their salary and bonuses. Consider: free software started getting better and better, and actually started to compete with commerical software. How could the big corporations fight this? Well, they can't be in business giving away their software, so they had to either stop the free software (difficult), or make it become non-free. How do you do that? Well, someone figured out (or lucked out on) the attack of intellectual property.

    Pervert the patent system, perhaps by systematically flooding it with patents for things that shouldn't be patented, slowly twisting things around so that you can kill free software with patents. Also cultivate regions and individual courts to be supportive of IP lawsuits.

    Perhaps this wasn't a big conspiracy by the for-profit corporations. Perhaps they just worked at many angles until they got one to work. I'm not sure I believe that.

    What does the future hold? Will this mess collapse? Unfortunately, I doubt it, at least in most of the western world. Countries like the U.S. are simply too dependent on, and so supportive of, the large, for-profit corporations. They create lots of jobs, after all (so the official line goes). At some point it *must* collapse, because it holds back progress, but we might have a long wait.

    1. Jean-Luc

      not everything here is about open source

      People have been screwing the patent system from way before Linux was a force to be reckoned with.

      This is a good bit of old fashioned FUD, from Oracle(Sun) and M$, because their mobile technology is getting its lunch eaten by Android and Apple. The fact that the target, Java, is nominally open source, is really not that relevant. It's not against open source specifically, it's just the corporate lawyers trying to work an angle around the fact that Java is open source and they still have to find a patent-related bone to pick.

      I wish Oracle(Sun) would just for once figure out if they want to free up Java or not. No stupid VM trick aspects as with this Android VM case. No equally stupid certification test licensing issues. Put up or shut up. Doubt this will happen.

  19. gnufreex

    WP7 was my idea!

    Therefore it infringes my patents!

    Seriously, Microsoft should shut it's dirty mouth. They don't even have guts to sue, so they are sending Paul Allen to do their dirty job. Oracle is at least suing head to head, win or lose. Microsoft don't have guts to do that, so they are just FUDing. They look worse that patent trolls now. They are FUDing Linux with non-existent patents since 2003. Like SCO does with non-existing copyrights. EPIC FAIL.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Are Oracle stupid?

    They have a vested interest in having android work out, they own Java, they own OpenOffice, if people use Linux based phones, they're products can be ported with relative ease, whereas Microsoft have their own database, their own office suit, their own C#, and if Google looses this one, then this is a market share that will partly go to Microsoft, and will kill java especially on mobile phones.

    I think a settlement is in order here.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    M$, better laugh too loudly or........

    Larry "Ming the Merciless" Ellison might just come knocking on your door with a few dusted off Sun patents.

  22. Ebeneser
    Thumb Down

    Unsurprising

    Can't believe that crap like this is even reported by el reg, large scumbag supports wannabe larger scumbag spouting here say as fact in order to promote inadequate up and coming products before they wither away and die. gimme a break.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You're s***ting me!

    You really mean there is somebody that takes Windolene Phone 7 seriously?

  24. mt1
    FAIL

    Hold on

    Microsoft agreed cross licensing on these patents to allow them to create their JVM like frameworks, it is impossible for them to side with google who decided to skirt round these patents

    Just as google has sided with verison on net neutrality that is for gooles self interest in the mobile world, microsoft has sided with oracle for interest ...so what?

    1. The Other Steve
      Happy

      yr doin it wrong!

      No no no, see what you did there was write something entirely reasonable and clearly well informed, and this was a story about Microsoft.

      Maybe you could try typing it again but ALL IN CAPS THIS TIME. Like a disguise ?

  25. Marco van de Voort
    WTF?

    J#, J-DROID ?

    Euh, how is the patent situation of J# ?

    Maybe Google just has to do the same as MS and name it J-DROID.

  26. Giles Jones Gold badge

    What cost?

    There is no cost yet, the case had yet to be heard.

    Any IP infringement costs would have to be paid by Google.

    So the only argument for buying a WP7 is that the company who makes the OS won't get sued? hardly convincing marketing.

  27. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Linux

    What would really make me smile

    Just suppose Google decided to sue Microsoft for defamation of character

  28. ambrose

    Not exactly on Oracle's side

    Microsoft sees a chance to attack Google and Linux at the same time. They don't care about Oracle (in fact they'd probably like to attack Oracle as well).

    It's called "cynical opportunism".

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Windows Phone 7

    I someone who just upgraded my T-Mobile phone, I can tell you exactly why I picked an Android phone (my-Touch slide) over a HTC HD2 (Windows phone) even though from a hardware standpoint, the HTC HD2 is a vastly superior phone. My choice was not because Android is "free". I, and everyone I know, pick Android phones overwhelmingly over Window phones even with a hardware handicap because Microsoft has always done a lousy job all the way around, especially in the mobile platform. I know that the HTC phone, despite having a processor with a 50% higher clock speed, will quickly become a slow virus laden POS due to Windows.

  30. Miek
    Linux

    Im guessing that ..

    Windows Phone 7 is going to be a bag of shite.

  31. Paul McGrath
    Stop

    CFOs and Tech Knowledge

    Seriously - we wait on baited breath for the technically sage words of a Microsoft CFO ?

    Are you for real ?

    I'd suggest he/she gets back to worrying about why their share price is on the long-term dive.

    1. The Other Steve
      FAIL

      Riiiiiiiight.

      "I'd suggest he/she gets back to worrying about why their share price is on the long-term dive."

      http://www.google.co.uk/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1284988226749&chddm=2477767&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NASDAQ:MSFT&ntsp=0

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I heard:

    "It is a gigantic loss period. We are very conscious that we do need market/sell/FUD potential customers, lock em' in tight. We can't piss away money forever, ... But we have the cash — it's a longer-term proposition that we pray holds profit, then we screw em' wholesale."

  33. Andy Watt
    FAIL

    Only on gsm?

    What crack are you smoking? No way a modern multimedia Windows phone would run only GSM. You mean quad band GSM / GPRS / EDGE / WCDMA prob with HSUPA and HSDPA, surely...

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