Microsoft, Barnes & Noble Partnership Is A Bad Deal For The Mobile Industry

<http://www.businessinsider.com/micr...2012-4>

<quote>
Microsoft's $300 million partnership with Barnes & Noble wasn't about
e-books. It was about Android and Linux and preserving Microsoft's
ability to be a patent bully.

In 2011, Microsoft strong-armed more than a half dozen Android/Linux
device makers into paying it royalties on every device they
made. Microsoft claimed Linux and Android violated its patents and
threatened to sue.

...

All of that was threatened by Barnes & Noble.

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble were duking it out in court because the
bookseller refused to pay Microsoft. Barnes & Noble was exposing the
undisclosed details about Microsoft's Android shake-down including:
the amount of money Microsoft was demanding for each device ($5 -
$15), which patents Microsoft claimed were infringed, how its plans
with Nokia were involved and other stuff.

With Microsoft's $300 million investment in a new subsidiary, the two
companies have ended their patent litigation. Barnes & Noble has also
agreed to pay Microsoft royalties for Android devices.
</quote>

Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science
or a dose of common sense
-Chapman Cohen