Doug's Mailbag: MS Lawyers Fighting a Losing Cause?, Beef With Doug's Blog

With the rumor that Microsoft may take their i4i patent case argument to the Supreme Court, here are some of your thoughts on what their next move should be:

Let's recap.
 1. Already removed offending code?
 2. Lost main lawsuit?
 3. Lost appeal case?
 4. Fighting fully substantiated Patent Office claim?
 5. Looking to waste millions of dollars making wealthy lawyers wealthier?

Oops, sorry about #5 there, just got lost in the moment. Seems their efforts could be better spent and money better invested in coming up with new features or applications to draw in more customers. Or they could make existing customers happier rather that just make wealthy lawyers richer. Must be nice to be able to afford to waste the kind of money they are fixing to give away. Face it -- that money is going to the lawyers, win, lose or draw.
-Ron

You indicate that the i4i patent has been upheld by the USPTO. That being the case, Microsoft would have to argue that:

• Despite two jury trials, they did not violate the i4i patent, or
• The previous award was not justified

Either one is a crapshoot for Microsoft and my guess that that it would cost Microsoft less to just settle with i4i than it would to send their (undoubtedly high-priced) lawyers to DC.

If the i4i patent was still pending, that would be one thing, but the patent office has made it official so I don't see that Microsoft can justify the cost of litigating it further.
-Marc

Put the lawyers to better use -- firing range targets.
-Bill

Posted by Doug Barney on May 21, 20100 comments

Self-Serving Virt Report Probably Right

Vendors often commission research. Some is suspect and clearly self-serving. Some is self-serving but also clean and true. I think the latter is true for Prism Microsystems. The company just released research arguing that IT, in its rush to virtualize, either doesn't do enough to secure these environments, doesn't have good enough tools to do the job or can't afford to do things right.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 19, 20102 comments

Citrix Makes New Virt Moves

Citrix is like the Rodney Dangerfield of virtualization. While Rodney got no respect, Citrix doesn't get enough. That's because industry watchers focus on the server hypervisor providor, such as VMware, Hyper-V and Xen. And Citrix is only doing okay.

But today, the hypervisor doesn't much matter. After all, they are largely free.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 19, 20101 comments

Doug's Mailbag: The Passing of Sybase, Google and Microsoft Duke It Out

One reader eulogizes the dearly-departed Sybase:

I remember working on Microsoft SQL Server 4 in 1992 -- it still referenced Sybase in the documentation at that point. It was stable, though, and worked well in our environment. Around the same time, I learned PowerSoft's PowerBuilder which made development against the SQL Server database much easier. PowerBuilder for local apps used the Watcom database engine which was an extremely quick SQL engine. Watcom was acquired by PowerSoft and morphed into SQL Anywhere. Sybase acquired PowerSoft shortly thereafter.

So, all of these products (except MS SQL Server) are owned by Sybase now and by SAP overall. All are really good products, but with most large companies, you are either an SAP shop or an Oracle shop (I won't include the others, no disrespect intended) and usually do not buy tools from the other ERP vendor. I think this will hurt PowerBuilder as it has already seen a decline due to the growth of .NET and Java. I hope SAP is able to re-invigorate the product lines and not just cast off PowerBuilder. SAP has major investments in java and ABAP already.

It is kind of funny to note that Microsoft used PowerBuilder internally. In fact, the "datagridview" in .net 2005 is very similar to the functionality of PowerBuilder's "datawindow" -- only 15 years late.
Joe

Posted by Doug Barney on May 19, 20102 comments

A Quick $200 Million

Want to get rich fast? Forget the lottery or American Idol. Just get a patent that Microsoft infringes upon!

VirtnetX has such a patent and Microsoft just shelled out a cool $200 million to settle the case. The patent involved Virtual Private Networks (VPN), an area Microsoft is pushing with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Actually the opposite is true: With this combo you can set up secure private connections without a VPN.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 19, 20100 comments

So Long Sybase

Sybase is (or was) one interesting company. Founded in 1984, two of the founders, Bob Epstein and Stu Hoffman, quickly became among the most accessible and honest business leaders. SQL Server was brand new, giving Oracle and all the other DBMS players fits.

Then Sybase crafted a deal with Microsoft and Ashton-Tate, a deal finalized behind closed doors at Esther Dyson's PC Forum (I was there, just not behind the doors).

Posted by Doug Barney on May 17, 20101 comments

Google Partners Now a Thousand Strong

When pundits claimed in recent years that Google was a major Microsoft competitor I scoffed. That's because back then they weren't. Their apps were bare-bones and the company's enterprise story weaker than a Keith Richards bicep.

But just as Microsoft has done time and time again, Google hung in there and its story slowly got better. Now Google Apps are stealing real business from Redmond, and with over 1,000 Google resellers, these apps are only going to get stronger.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 17, 20105 comments

Google and Microsoft: Competition?

While Google would clearly love to replace Office in corporate accounts, the company is also apparently pleased if you use Office and Google together. The latest pitch is for corporations to keep Office and use Google Apps to store files in the cloud. This allows users to get at the files from nearly any device while still using the familiar Office interface.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 17, 20105 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Exchange Plans, Cult of Apple, Securing Users

With almost half of shops planning on migrating to Exchange 2010 in the next year, here's a reader's plans regarding the new version:

I'm investigating Exchange 2010 migration. We moved to 2007 last year, but we would like to take advantage of the archiving feature in 2010 (and other features). I will wait for SP1 for sure.
-Adrian

Posted by Doug Barney on May 14, 20100 comments

Kagan on the Microsoft Case?

If Elena Kagan is confirmed for the Supreme Court, she may have a say in the future of Microsoft Word.

In case you hadn't heard, software company i4i sued Microsoft claiming Word violated an i4i XML patent. i4i won, Microsoft appealed and i4i won again. Now the patent is fully substantiated by the U.S. Patent Office.

You'd think Microsoft has nowhere to turn, especially since it already stripped the offending code from Word. But no, Microsoft is considering taking this puppy all the way to the Supreme Court. Kagan better start reading up an XML and metacode maps!

Posted by Doug Barney on May 14, 20103 comments

You Want Office 2010? You Got it!

If you are an average schmoe, you'll have to wait a month to get your mitts on Office 2010 or SharePoint 2010. If you are an enterprise licensee, well you can get the finished goods right now.

I've seen Office 2010 and interviewed many of you that tested this bad boy, and if you like feature-rich software, this Bud's for you.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 14, 20100 comments

IT Security Fears: What Keeps You Up?

IT is a nerve-wracking profession. You have dopey end-users, unrealistic bosses and vendors looking to squeeze out every dime.

And then you have hacker creeps. Amplitude Research feels your pain and just released a report detailing what worries you the most.

Posted by Doug Barney on May 14, 20100 comments