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Print 19 comment(s) - last by Darksurf.. on Feb 24 at 9:06 PM
Licensing rates were not disclosed

Remember Nikon Corp.'s (TYO:7731) Android-powered smart cameras like the Coolpix S800c?  Well it appears that adding Google Inc.'s (GOOG) free operating system isn't going to be quite so free -- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has successfully shaken down the Japanese camera maker for a licensing fee.

Most of the top Android phonemakers -- including HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) and Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) -- pay licensing fees ranging from $10 to $15 per unit to Microsoft.  Now it appears that the camera makers will be following in suit.  (Samsung presumably pays Microsoft a licensing fee on its "Galaxy" Android smartcameras).

In a press release Microsoft gloats:

The patent agreement is another example of the important role intellectual property (IP) plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant IT ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 1,100 licensing agreements and continues to develop programs that make it possible for customers, partners and competitors to access its IP portfolio. The program was developed to open access to Microsoft’s significant R&D investments and its growing, broad patent and IP portfolio. Microsoft’s specific patent licensing program for Android device makers has resulted in signed license agreements with numerous companies including Samsung, LG, HTC, Acer and Barnes & Noble.


Nikon Coolpix S800c

The licensing agreement is a cautionary tale to other camera makers.  Incorporating a smartphone-like OS into your point and shoot camera may be appealing, but it won't be free -- you'll have to pay the Microsoft tax.

Source: Microsoft


Comments     Threshold


Doing it Right
By CaedenV on 2/22/2013 12:38:17 PM , Rating: 5
This is the one thing that I love about MS that I hate about Apple. Where apple would view all competition as a terrible thing, and always seeks to shut down or absorb everyone who is not themselves, MS creates avenues to allow other companies to use their IP at a relatively low price point.
Granted, the price point could (and arguably should) be lower when talking about a per-device fee, but I would much rather live in a world where if you want to do something interesting you can do it, rather than the apple world where creativity is locked up in a bottle that is never to be touched.




RE: Doing it Right
By SeeManRun on 2/22/2013 12:41:39 PM , Rating: 3
A device fee might be better if your device flops. It would be unfortunately to pay 1 million for a license and only sell 5000 units...


RE: Doing it Right
By CaedenV on 2/22/2013 12:56:02 PM , Rating: 2
so true


RE: Doing it Right
By othercents on 2/22/2013 1:12:11 PM , Rating: 2
This "tax" is only specific to the Android based cameras which I believe only applies to the S800c. The rest of the cameras are still running a different OS.


RE: Doing it Right
By Nortel on 2/22/13, Rating: -1
RE: Doing it Right
By Bateluer on 2/22/2013 3:08:26 PM , Rating: 4
Apple wouldn't license at all, they would sue to block the Nikon smart cameras from the market entirely. Only to come back a year later with their own smart camera, claim they invented it, and call it magical.

Microsoft's Android Tax is a scumbag policy that stifles innovation and harms consumers. Especially when Microsoft's own smartphone OS has been dead in the water. But, it does not outright block products from coming to market and getting to the customer. Google still needs to take a more active role in combating IP trolls like Microsoft.


RE: Doing it Right
By KoolAidMan1 on 2/24/2013 4:43:15 AM , Rating: 1
Not true, Apple licenses to many companies, Microsoft and HTC being two of them. Samsung refused to pay license fees to Apple, that's why it ended up going to court.


RE: Doing it Right
By ResStellarum on 2/23/2013 10:52:58 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
This is the one thing that I love about MS that I hate about Apple.


You love Microsoft for taxing something that's free?

quote:
MS creates avenues to allow other companies to use their IP at a relatively low price point.


Microsoft's supposed IP all revolves around the ubiquitous FAT, an over a decade old file system layout, one which I might hasten to add has prior art. Specifically, Linus Torvalds described a long/short file name system long before Microsoft patented it.

quote:
but I would much rather live in a world where if you want to do something interesting you can do it, rather than the apple world where creativity is locked up in a bottle that is never to be touched.

Except that by slapping the Microsoft tax on other systems, it actually stops smaller startups from using them to innovate. The "Microsoft Tax" is unfortunately spreading everywhere Microsoft feels threatened. First it was OEM's who had to pay a fee to Microsoft even if alternative OS's like GNU/Linux were installed on a PC, now it's Android. Microsoft can't compete with "free", so it has to raise of the price of "free" using dubious patents. That's a clear abuse of the patent system to suppress competition.


RE: Doing it Right
By FaaR on 2/24/2013 8:44:06 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
You love Microsoft for taxing something that's free?

F'n A. MS is taxing a device which they themselves never actually invented. They're just relying on a BS patent which they never should have been awarded in the first place.

MS never invented either digital cameras, portable computing devices or touchscreens, but somehow they deserve a patent for combining these already-existing elements? Wow, someone sure deserves a bullet to the back of the head for that leap of logic.

Heck, I say each time a corp makes an extortionist blatant cash-grab move like this we round up the CEO, board of directors and the rest of their top executives and dispose of them one by one by firing squad until they agree to stop acting like a bunch of greedy pricks. To safeguard against the situation where they relent immediately, a minimum requirement of say...ten execs starting from the top down would be a nice even number to be culled from the herd.

I bet that would stop patent trolling and submarining real quick too.


What a crappy spin on a common business practice
By Nekrik on 2/22/2013 1:11:49 PM , Rating: 4
MS spends hundreds of millions on RND, and to keep funding that RND, which covers new techs like Kinect, or their efforts to thwart malware, bots, etc... they collect liscensing fees for the IP that they own (as mentioned in the article where the author refers to them gloating). Its sad to see well known sites like this try to inject such negetive spin on a common business practice that is utilized by nearly every company. As mentioned in another post, it's far better that they share the IP rather than use to push other players out of the market.




By kingbee1333 on 2/22/2013 1:42:52 PM , Rating: 3
Yeap Google just uses whatever they want, leaves the OEMs to fend for themselves, Apple just plays the sue card. Microsoft must not be extorting these companies, Motorola is the only holdout. B&N; threatened a lawsuit, but ended up in a joint venture with MS instead.


By ResStellarum on 2/23/2013 11:00:37 AM , Rating: 2
Just to add to what you said sprockkets, none of Microsoft's claimed patents against Android have actually been tested in court. I have a feeling they'd all be invalidated like FAT due to prior art and being far too vague.


By reneemariejones on 2/22/2013 11:44:01 PM , Rating: 2
Coal miners work hard. Do they get a monopoly on coal? Microsoft never invented any of this crap. Read the patents. They are worthless junk that describe nothing. Worthless junk. Just licenses from the government to shake down the people who actually build things.


MS=BS
By Fastyle on 2/22/2013 3:29:37 PM , Rating: 2
I for one think it is time for someone to develop a new and open storage system aka (File Allocation Table). which most of these (Microsoft) licensing agreements are (or start out as) being based on.

To think that if we had intellectual property laws as far back as say, the wheel, the container be it square or round (ooh wait, "I have the paten on round", "you have to pay me for every wheel you make". The impact on our society's progress would be long felt.

I for one will not be "licensing" Office 365, or any other software annually (there are alternatives), to continue to have to pay annually to use software is Ludacris. Soon it will be the OS that is preinstalled on your device be it PC, phone, tablet, camera or what ever else. Who wants that POS new OS any way, Microsoft is trying to force you to learn their phone and tablet OS on the PC so your more willing buy (or would that be “license”) their product next time, last I looked they had less then 3% of the cell phone market where all the money is (how often does the average person buy each of these), and a yet to be determined tablet market.

What's next, the government make us all pay a licensing fee to use the very tax system they've developed to tax us? and speaking of tax, isn't that what a licensing fee is, I thought only the government could do that and get away with it!




RE: MS=BS
By sprockkets on 2/22/13, Rating: 0
RE: MS=BS
By Darksurf on 2/24/2013 9:06:45 PM , Rating: 2
Samsung has already invented a solution for this problem and they just donated it to the Linux Kernel. its called the F2FS filesystem. Its meant for Solid State and bare-nand devices. So basically flash drives, SD cards, SSDs, and devices that have bare nand flash such as android phones and mobile devices.

Since they have a working linux/android model (which can be easily ported to BSD and Mac due to it being opensource) they just need to get a working windows driver.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item...;

Microsoft can eat **** and die.


Microsoft tax
By reneemariejones on 2/22/2013 11:41:31 PM , Rating: 2
It is sick that thugs like Microsoft are allowed to steal from everyone like this. The USPTO is to blame for issuing all of these inane patents, thugs like Microsoft are to blame for applying for patents on things that they know they never invented, and we are to blame for allowing this insanity to continue.




RE: Microsoft tax
By ResStellarum on 2/23/2013 11:03:57 AM , Rating: 2
Hear, hear! ;)


"You can bet that Sony built a long-term business plan about being successful in Japan and that business plan is crumbling." -- Peter Moore, 24 hours before his Microsoft resignation











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