Just another day in Legal Land: MS is being sued over Live Tiles in Windows 8

[sir whoopsalot]

[quote]Microsoft has been slapped with a patent infringement lawsuit over its use of dynamic "live" tile icons in Windows, including in the newly launched Windows 8 OS for PCs and tablets and in the Windows Phone 8 OS for smartphones.SurfCast, based in Portland, Maine, [URL="http://www.surfcast.com/news.php"]filed[/URL] its lawsuit on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, and is asking for Microsoft to pay an undetermined amount of money in damages and attorneys' fees.
At issue is U.S. Patent 6,724,403, titled "System and Method for Simultaneous Display of Multiple Information Sources," which SurfCast was awarded in 2004.
SurfCast takes issue with Windows' use of live tiles, which are rectangular or square icons in the Start screen of new Windows versions that provide links to applications, websites, contacts and other elements. SurfCast describes itself on its website as a designer of OS technology. It claims to have developed the live tile technology in the 1990s.
Unlike conventional icons, live tiles display dynamically-changing data about the element it links to, such as the number of unread messages in users' email inboxes and alerts about new notifications from their social networking accounts.
Live tiles are a key user interface feature in a variety of new Windows versions, including Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT, which is a Windows 8 version for devices that use ARM chips. Microsoft first used live tiles in Windows Phone 7.
Starting with Windows 7 and most significantly with the just-launched Windows 8 OS family, Microsoft redesigned the Windows user interface around the use of these tile icons, so as to optimize the OS for use with touchscreen tablets and smartphones.
Windows is a minor player in tablets and smartphones, whose sales have been booming in the past three years. Google's Android and Apple's iOS are the main OSes used in tablets and smartphones.
Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.[/quote]

[URL=http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9233111/Microsoft_sued_over_use_of_live_tiles_in_Windows]Awesome sauce[/url]

I actually took a moment to check out their website ([URL=http://www.surfcast.com/news.php]If you feel like going back to the Myspace era of websites[/url]) and literally all it lists is them holding 4 patents. Fuck those guys.

[Bradyns]

Get fucked!
[quote]
A computerized method of presenting information from a variety of sources on a display device. Specifically the present invention describes a graphical user interface for organizing the simultaneous display of information from a multitude of information sources. In particular, the present invention comprises a graphical user interface which organizes content from a variety of information sources into a grid of tiles, each of which can refresh its content independently of the others. The grid functionality manages the refresh rates of the multiple information sources. According to one embodiment, the method of the present invention allocates refresh rates to tiles according to priorities that are assigned based on identifiers such as quality of service (QoS) tags associated with one or more of the information sources. The present invention is intended to operate in a platform independent manner.
[URL]http://www.google.com/patents/US20050283734[/URL]
[/quote]

[Untouch]

patent trolls plz go

[Protocol7]

bah, fucking crybabies

"wahhh a company is doing better than I am!! wahhhhhhh I want their profits"

also [B]christ[/B]​ that patent is broad

[fruxodaily]

They have live tiles in WP7, so why the fuck did they wait till now to sue?

[Fatfatfatty]

WoT gives me a code red on their website, lol.

[S31-Syntax]

Because W8 is popular. More dollars for it.

Regardless, Microsoft will settle.

[dai]

[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;38287452]Because W8 is popular. More dollars for it.

Regardless, Microsoft will settle.[/QUOTE]

that's the trolls' intent. 'sue' for X dollars, and the company will settle for a lesser amount because it's easier. You still get a shitton

[quote]"We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time. Microsoft’s Live Tiles are the centerpiece of Microsoft’s new Operating Systems and are covered by our patent."[/quote]

k

do you have working concepts or was this a pipedream "dude what if squares could tell us things some day" patent

[Nikota]

The patent is literally describing desktop shortcuts.

[editline]2nd November 2012[/editline]

Ban laptops. They present battery information in an icon.

[Protocol7]

[QUOTE=Nikota;38287710]The patent is literally describing desktop shortcuts.

[editline]2nd November 2012[/editline]

Ban laptops. They present battery information in an icon.[/QUOTE]

Hell, even widgets, or task manager, fall under that patent.

[Amez]

What the fuck is SurfCast?

[dai]

[QUOTE=Nikota;38287710]The patent is literally describing desktop shortcuts.

[editline]2nd November 2012[/editline]

Ban laptops. They present battery information in an icon.[/QUOTE]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/pbp01.png[/img]

shortcuts don't display information from multiple sources, updated separately

it's describing your monitor if you have multiple internet windows open

[Nikota]

Vista fucking had that.

[editline]2nd November 2012[/editline]

couldn't they also technically sue any company for using a loading bar?

[S31-Syntax]

[QUOTE=daijitsu;38287699]that's the trolls' intent. 'sue' for X dollars, and the company will settle for a lesser amount because it's easier. You still get a shitton[/QUOTE]

Yeah but Microsoft will settle in like... 3 seconds. The lawsuit will hit their desk, they'll call em, and say "how much do you want to shut the hell up"

[Pugsworth]

I look forward to the day when patents like these are null.
To bad I'll be dead by the time that ever happens.

[Nikota]

Not really. Theyd fight against this since it's so incredibally broad.

[andololol]

What did SurfCast even do worth mentioning?

[BigJoeyLemons]

[QUOTE=andololol;38287829]What did SurfCast even do worth mentioning?[/QUOTE]

Sue people for broad patents that they made with the sole intention of suing people for them later on.

[dai]

[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;38287819]Yeah but Microsoft will settle in like... 3 seconds. The lawsuit will hit their desk, they'll call em, and say "how much do you want to shut the hell up"[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Nikota;38287828]Not really. Theyd fight against this since it's so incredibally broad.[/QUOTE]

if microsoft was a little more dubious, I'd expect them to fight back and pump out a ton of money (more than the settlement probably) to keep legal stuff going until they simply snuff out the trolls

[assassin_Raptor]

Its like people just go and patent random shit before its even used or invented then sue the people who actually use it or created the code to use it. Its fucking ridiculous.

[Big D Duchovny]

I'd love Microsoft to just annihilate these guys in court.

[Murk]

Let's make a massive international organisation and just fucking sue everyone that has any software patents on the grounds that software patents are fucking retarded.

Fuck those guys.

[Mud]

[QUOTE]"We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time. Microsoft’s Live Tiles are the centerpiece of Microsoft’s new Operating Systems and are covered by our patent."
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]"We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time."
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]"which was ahead of its time.."
[/QUOTE]

Hey guys we totally made that take our word for it. What? You want to see it? Uhh trust me we made it I left it in my uhh other pants.

Totally guys trust us we made this first. Really guys.

[TheSporeGA]

Our patent system is ass

[SA Spyder]

This just goes to show that if a company designs even the most unique UI, there will almost always be some fucking company out there never previously heard of to sue them. Software patents need to die. They limit creativity and innovation.

[SEKCobra]

[QUOTE=assassin_Raptor;38288633]Its like people just go and patent random shit before its even used or invented then sue the people who actually use it or created the code to use it. Its fucking ridiculous.[/QUOTE]

welcome to the american patent system and software patents!!!! :DDDDDDD

[Jsm]

If you look at the images submitted along with the patent (it was in a Gizmodo article on it) it contains Microsoft images. Would love to see MS counter-sue over copyright infringement.

[IMG]http://media.gizmodo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/tumblr_mcre9ozvzR1qebvfb.png[/IMG]

[dai]

[QUOTE=SA Spyder;38289234]This just goes to show that if a company designs even the most unique UI, there will almost always be some fucking company out there never previously heard of to sue them. Software patents need to die. They limit creativity and innovation.[/QUOTE]

I'd say the current patent system should be reformed (whilst protecting existing patents for a grace period allowing re-application to the new system) but there's probably already a patent on that

[SEKCobra]

[QUOTE=Jsm;38289374]If you look at the images submitted along with the patent (it was in a Gizmodo article on it) it contains Microsoft images. Would love to see MS counter-sue over copyright infringement.

[IMG]http://media.gizmodo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/tumblr_mcre9ozvzR1qebvfb.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]

Screenshots of MS systems shouldn't be criminalized, thank you.

[dai]

[QUOTE=Jsm;38289374]If you look at the images submitted along with the patent (it was in a Gizmodo article on it) it contains Microsoft images. Would love to see MS counter-sue over copyright infringement.

[IMG]http://media.gizmodo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/tumblr_mcre9ozvzR1qebvfb.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]

boy I sure would love to see windows 8 have a grid of cramped views of the corner of websites constantly refreshing and reminders of how badly named my hard drives are