Subject: Timeline -vs- Microsoft judgment
From: Stanley Long (slong@customcpu.com)
Date: Fri Feb 21 2003 - 15:11:02 AKST
SQL Server developers face huge royalty bills.
How many, how much?
By Drew Cullen Posted: 20/02/2003 at 23:00 GMT
The judgment implements the previously announced ruling by the
Washington Court of Appeals. It confirms Microsoft's ability to
sublicense its patent license to its customers is limited.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/29419.html
The Findings in this case have far-reaching consequences, due to the
potential damages Microsoft customers face, in spite of the assurances
Microsoft previously provided.
... the Superior Court found that if the proposal, which the
License Agreement was intended to memorialize, was as Timeline
contended, then
"...every Microsoft customer, including ISVs, VARs, and
corporate end users, who wished to customize SQL Server
by adding code or product to meet the specific needs of
users would have been required to purchase a license from
Timeline to do so. ...
The Court of Appeals did note that, for whatever reason, Microsoft now
finds the "...agreement is not commercially reasonable...". But the
court rightly pointed out "...it is not the duty of the courts to
correct what may be bad bargains, but to enforce an agreement as
written."
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Fri Feb 21 2003 - 15:02:46 AKST