The real “odd duck is” Microsoft, a company that was never a major player in the mobile phone market until recently and even now it’s a leap of faith
click to enlarge
to call the company a "major player." However, Microsoft believes it is, especially considering the release of
Windows Phone 7, the newest OS set to "destroy" all other OSes, and that is apparently all it takes for the co-founder, Paul Allen, to have the gall to sue another major mobile market player. Nevertheless, the company itself is a big player in the intellectual property patent game. Microsoft has accumulated a host of patents on some things that would surprise you.
For instance, some Linux technology. Yes, that is what I said; Linux, the mostly open source and "not patentable" technology, or one would think it was not patentable, anyway. In fact, HTC recently signed an agreement with Microsoft for patent protection against possible lawsuits in connection with their use of Android OS. Microsoft is potentially a big player in the mobile phone market due to their ability to control the patent war as the company seems to do very well. Paul Allen, one of the original founders of Microsoft, is suing Google, Apple, eBay, Facebook and many others claiming that they have all violated fundamental patents that he himself owns. While this is entirely separate from Microsoft's interests, he is still a big part of Microsoft, which could go a long way in the deciding factor of these lawsuits.
