Yes, Its the empire march. Microsoft is suing TomTom for patent infringement in U.S. Patents:
6,175,789; 7,054,745; 6,704,032; 7,117,286; 6,202,008; vfat: 5,579,517 ; 5,758,352; and 6,256,642 .
TomTom is a European company using a gnu/linux platform. Even though TomTom is pretty large, its a pressing moment with the financial crisis for everyone. Lets hope that they can stand the pressure from Redmond.
TomTom's CEO saying that they spend more money on patentlitigation than on R&D:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSOIK-tlN8g
Groklaw has the complaint at http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/tomtomComplaint.pdf and a good recommendation: "Think Bilski"!
Update: Case settled out of court. Its incredible how naive most of these patents are, just watch the claims in the comments. Still they survive at the expense of development and competition. More at groklaw
1st claims in Microsoft patents vs TomTom
ReplyDelete#6175789 http://www.google.com/patents?id=_wIGAAAAEBAJ&dq=6175789
1. A vehicle computer system comprising:
a housing of a size suitable to be mounted in a vehicle dashboard;
a computer mounted within the housing;
an open platform operating system executing on the computer; and
multiple vehicle-related applications executing on the operating system to control operation of components in the vehicle.
#7054745 http://www.google.com/patents?id=Xzt4AAAAEBAJ&dq=7,054,745
1. A method for generating a set of instructions to guide a driver along a route, wherein the route comprises a first node, a second node, a third node, a first road coupled to the first node, a second road coupled between the first node and the second node, and a third road coupled between the second node and the third node, and a fourth road coupled to the third node, and wherein the method comprises the steps of:
generating a first instruction operative to guide the driver from the first road, through the first node, and onto the second road;
generating a second instruction operative to guide the driver from the second road through the second node, and onto third road; and
combining the first instruction and the second instruction into a combined instruction operative to guide the driver from the first road, through the first node, through the second road, through the second node, and onto the third road wherein, based upon the configuration of the first node and the second node, the first instruction and the second instruction are combined into the combined instruction when the driver would perceive the first node and the second node as a single integrated feature of the route.
#6704032 http://www.google.com/patents?id=zb0QAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,704,032
1. A method for interfacing multiple different user input hardware arrangements with virtual object-based graphical user interface logic, the method comprising:
generating a displayable form within a graphical user interface, the displayable form including at least one controllable virtual user-input object;
establishing a set of key events, wherein at least a portion of the key events can be operatively associated with a plurality of different types of non-virtual user input mechanisms;
receiving user input via at least one non-virtual user input mechanism selected from the plurality of different types of non-virtual user input mechanisms;
establishing a behavior model for the displayable form; and
determining when an operational change associated with the controllable virtual user-input object is required based at least on the behavior model and the received user input and when appropriate causing the operational chance to occur such that the virtual user-input controllable object is graphically altered in appearance and associated controlled logic functionality is modified accordingly.
#7117286 http://www.google.com/patents?id=K_N6AAAAEBAJ&dq=7,117,286
1. A portable computing device comprising:
means for determining a type of an appliance in which the portable computing device is docked;
means for identifying, based on the type of the appliance, a user interface configuration for the portable computing device;
means for configuring a user interface of the portable computing device in accordance with the identified user interface configuration;
means for saving a state of the portable computing device when the portable computing device is undocked from the appliance; and
means for retrieving the saved state when the portable computing device is again docked in the appliance.
#6202008 http://www.google.com/patents?id=crt7AAAAEBAJ&dq=6,202,008
1. A vehicle computer system comprising:
a housing of a size suitable to be mounted in a vehicle dashboard;
a computer mounted within the housing;
an open platform operating system executing on the computer; and
an Internet wireless link to provide access to the Internet.
And some FAT32/VFAT patents:
#5579517 http://www.google.com/patents?id=cLAkAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,579,517
1. In a computer system having a processor running an operating system and a memory means storing the operating system, a method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
(a) storing in the memory means a first directory entry for a file wherein the first directory entry holds a short filename for the file, said short filename including at most a maximum number of characters that is permissible by the operating system;
(b) storing in the memory means a second directory entry for a the file wherein the second directory entry holds a long filename for the file and wherein the second directory entry includes an attributes field which may be set to make the second directory entry invisible to the operating system and the step of storing the second directory entry further comprises the step of setting the attributes field so that the second directory entry is invisible to the operating system, said long filename including more than the maximum number of characters that is permissible by the operating system; and
(c) accessing the first directory entry with the operating system.
#5758352 http://www.google.com/patents?id=bUohAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,758,352
1. In a computer system having a storage, a directory service for accessing directory entries and a file system that uses the directory entries to access files, a method, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
(a) creating a first directory entry for a file wherein the first directory holds a short filename for the file and the location of the file;
(b) creating a second directory entry for the file wherein the second directory entry holds at least one portion of a long filename having a fixed number of characters and a signature that identifies that the second directory entry holds a first portion of the long filename;
(c) storing the first directory entry and the second directory entry on the storage among the directory entries used by the directory service; (d) accessing the second directory entry by the directory service to access the file; and (e) creating and storing in the storage a sequence of at least one additional directory entry for holding a next sequential portion of the long filename.
#6256642 http://www.google.com/patents?id=02YIAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,256,642
1. A manager for a computer memory comprising:
a block allocation routine, the memory divided into blocks of memory locations, each block having an allocation table and a data region divided into data areas, each allocation table having entries corresponding to region data areas, the block allocation routine for selecting a block in which to store data;
a data area allocation routine for selecting a data area within the data region for the selected block in which to store data, for selecting an allocation table entry to correspond to the selected data area, and for setting the selected allocation table entry to correspond to the selected data area and to an allocated state; and
a storage routine for storing data in the selected data area.
If Erik Josefsson's Patent Bay site looked at these patents, TomTom would stand a chance to fight Microsoft.
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