Microsoft: The "Innovator"
I have to laugh whenever I hear Microsoft refer to themselves as "innovators." They are not.
What makes their claims so laughable is that Gates & Co. combine their lack of original thinking with incredulously sleazy business practices.
Case in point: The iPod.
Months after Apple designed, created and started selling the iPod, Microsoft filed a patent application for a similar interface. Thats Microsoft innovation at its finest.
A Microsoft employee said: "Our policy is to allow others to license our patents so they can use our innovative methods in their products."
Seriously, they said that -- you can look it up.
Apple, in its own lovably disfunctional way, failed to file their patent prior to selling the product. Steve Jobs is going to lop someone's head off.
Of course, given that several 100,000 iPods were sold when Microsoft filed their patent, they obviously had to include the iPod as prior art, right? Otherwise, the MSFT patent is laughably incomplete. (I'll bet MSFT somehow omitted that).
What a pair of buffoons: The corrupt, and the incompetant.
>
Sources:
Microsoft beats Apple to technology patent
Earlier application may mean royalties on every iPod sale
Bloomberg News, August 12, 2005
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0508120097aug12,1,4655042.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Apple loses bid on patent
Microsoft wins first round in struggle over iPod system
Matthew Yi
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer, Page C - 1 Friday, August 12, 2005
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/12/BUGF9E6NM71.DTL
Saturday, August 13, 2005 | 09:45 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Apple was also not the first to make these kinds of products and certainly not one of the best. What they are good at is marketing and somehow convince people they make good products. In fact the only thing they can sell products with is innovative design. Their hardware usually stinks and costs a lot.
Posted by: tt | Aug 13, 2005 10:54:43 AM
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