Microsoft joins LOT Network to battle against Patent Trolls

[Ink]

Content source

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-joins-lot-network-helping-protect-developers-against-patent-assertions/

We are pleased to announce that Microsoft is joining the LOT Network, a growing, non-profit community of companies that is helping to lead the way toward addressing the patent troll problem, an issue that impacts businesses of all sizes.

In the most extreme cases, we’ve seen mass mailings and campaigns to extract value from small businesses who are not equipped to understand patents. Although these problems are less acute in the US today than in the past, in part because of changes in the law, the challenge persists for many businesses. Entrepreneur magazine cited a recent study showing that 40 percent of small companies involved in patent litigation reported “significant operational impact” from those suits, which some described as a “death knell.”
[…]
What does all of this mean for you if you’re a software developer or in the technology business? It means that Microsoft is taking another step to help stop patents from being asserted against you by companies running aggressive monetization campaigns.

 

[DeepWeb]

I will join whatever movement that opposes big oligopolies from hoarding patents and then whining when small companies have secured their idea. Calling them patent trolls is borrowing their vocabulary. Most are good startups and small businesses that have been around for decades that want to be part of the industry without being crushed by Apple, Google, Microsoft whose vertical integration and exclusivity deals with other parties make it nearly impossible to compete with them. Notice they're only patent trolls if they don't strike a shitty deal with the megacorporations or don't agree to be bought up. So now the megacorporations have ganged up to create a cartel to bully smaller companies even more than before. Microsoft has been and is still one of the biggest patent trolls in the world.

 

[vtqhtr413]

and exclusivity deals with other parties make it nearly impossible to compete with them

Who are these other parties, that would be the more interesting information