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Court Questions Patent Damages Against Microsoft For Guatemalan Patent Holder
from the more-delays dept
Microsoft has been fighting for years against a Guatemalan patent holder, Carlos Amado, who claims to hold a patent on the concept of linking a database to a spreadsheet. The patent itself has been thoroughly debunked. Even the patent itself admits that it’s merely taken a bunch of concepts that were widely used before and combining them — which is exactly the type of thing that the Supreme Court has said should not be patentable. Microsoft has appealed the ruling, but the Supreme Court turned it down. However, it then appealed the amount of damages, and the appeals court has now thrown out the lower court’s damages based on the fact that it appeared to pick the damages number out of thin air. It seems likely that Microsoft will still have to pay damages for infringement (though, the court also admits that new Supreme Court rulings may impact the amount as well), but the lower court is going to at least have to justify how much Microsoft needs to pay Amado for basically putting such an obvious idea on paper and filing a patent.
Filed Under: carlos armando amado, damages, patents
Companies: microsoft
Comments on “Court Questions Patent Damages Against Microsoft For Guatemalan Patent Holder”
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THE FINES SHOULD BE HIGHER!
Mike's ignorance
Carlos Amado was a Ph.D. Computer Science graduate student at Stanford when he came up with his ideas and filed for patent protection
As far as I remember he offered a licence to Mshit but was told to take a hike
In the meantime Mshit started to use Amado’s ideas in its products right away
The damages awarded were a measly 9 mil of which poor Carlos probably got 30% or even much less (last time I checked his patent was asigned to Acacia, meaning he probablhy had to sell it outright for some very small amount of money)
You should worry about crooked corporate CEOs in America, the upcoming recession, the looming presidential elections, the war on the american middle class etc. etc. etc.
And stop worrying about some poor Guatemalan guy collecting some small money from Mshit – he is still dirt poor by Mshit standards after all
Mshit has thousands of guys and girls who are a lot richer than poor Carlos and they didn’t invent shit
Just leave Carlos alone, OK ?
Re: Mike's ignorance
Damnit. Why did you have to go and make life imitate art! I thought even you wouldn’t take that view.
Anyway, it’s people like this guy, and his frivolous patents that are part of what’s nixed America’s economy: We have little manufacturing, right now our economy’s based on technology.
We’ve been systematically dismantling our technological advantage.
Of course the economy blows!
Re: Re: Dude, you are A MORON
What happened to you, punk ?
Did your mom drop you on your head when you were little ?
Why the fuck are you posting such unbelievalbe nonsense ?
Do you really believe it ?
Fuck, I have better things to do in my life
Have a happy life techdirt morons
Re: Re: Re: Dude, you are A MORON
If you really belive that, why do you waste time arguing with us?
Who’s more pathetic, us for our unshakable beliefs, or you for continuing to argue on this site despite it being a total waste of time, and there being other places more sympathetic to your views that you could go?
Re: Re: Re: Dude, you are A MORON
lawl, if he finally left I think I’ll giggle for a week.
I mean seriously. If this guy wasn’t just crappy at trolling I’m amazed he could function in real society.
Of course considering the stuff currently coming out of our society . . .
Angry Douche,
You really think Mike is ignorant or are you just lashing out because you disagree ?
Microsoft has so much money, they can afford to pass some around – this is your rational for allowing a bad patent to be upheld … amazing.
Re: Re:
Angry dude has never let himself be bothered with little things like the truth or common sense.
Carlos Amado has a pHD (angry dude supposedly has one too), and sued angry dude’s favorite ‘big evil’ corporation, and won in court.
Never mind the fact that the patent has plenty of prior art, and is actually just a bundling of other people’s ideas. A ‘little guy’ won against a ‘big guy’, and that’s all that matters in angry dude’s extremely warped world view.
Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll come back and swear at someone in Russian to prove how awesome he is.
Angry Dude
is a loser.
Re: Angry Dude
As are you, because you’re posting anonymously, and making a post that adds nothing to any discussion. Quit being an asshole. The only way to fight assholes is to be nice people, you know.
Re: Re: Angry Dude
Actually, being a bigger ass works too. It is like fighting fire with fire. It works for a little bit, but the conclusion is always the same.
Both processes can be fairly entertaining however.
Re: Re: Re: Angry Dude
I don’t find it amusing. I find it rather alienating, as it’s the party-liners who yell at each other, and politics is supposed to be about compromise. I’m a radical moderate.
Re: Re: Re:2 Angry Dude
Really? He claims to have a PHD? Then why the hell is a 19 year old college student more mature then he is?
With the name calling and the like he seems around a nine year old in maturity… oh, right. I forgot. Anonymousness + Audience = Asshole
Lest us never forget what it looks like to have a view into angry dude’s future.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/281402/a_peek_into_the_future/
BTW- My fav thing that shows up when you google angry dude’s Real Name is at a character artist’s website-
“Additional Skills:
can moan for adult movies too.”
All this from a person with a PHd, Huh?
Stay Classy, Angry Dude. Stay Classy.
Re: Re:
I like the
Voice Description
Well, I guess can passoff for a guy (or a girl). Its simple, articulate, warm for narrations, sexy, definetly fun for commercials.
Its got a neutralized accent which would standout in presentations and it has the flexibility of the character that it would represent.
Complete with misspelling and all.
Mike Masnick, a shepherd of poor techdirt retards
He keeps feeding them a steady diet of propaganda gibberish, to keep them away from the real issues facing tech industry and this society in general
(All the while collecting money from his Korporate buddies)
What a dork
Re: Mike Masnick, a shepherd of poor techdirt reta
I thought you knew that arguing in this fashion was senseless and useless and you had better things to do?
And, the inventor doesn’t even own the damn patent, as you said. Some other company that he sold it to does. “(last time I checked his patent was asigned[sic] to Acacia, meaning he probablhy[sic] had to sell it outright for some very small amount of money)” So…
Anyway, it’s not a valid patent. And the ‘real’ issues facing the tech industry? The economy’s tanking because we’re not producing as much. We’re not producing as much because companies don’t want to operate here. Companies don’t want to operate here because of this kind of crap.
Let's put the shoe on the other foot
Okay, now let’s say that Microsoft developed this, and patented it.
And along comes Carlos Amado, who starts using it without Microsoft’s blessing or permission. Do you think that Microsoft would just let it go? Ask him nicely to cease and desist? Perhaps at first, but when he failed to comply, they would sue the pants off of him.
I say good for Carlos Amado, and I hope he gets what he’s looking for.
Re: Let's put the shoe on the other foot
“now let’s say that Microsoft developed this, and patented it. And along comes Carlos Amado, who starts using it without Microsoft’s blessing or permission. Do you think that Microsoft would just let it go?”
Hell no. We, on the other hand, would be arguing that Microsoft is full of s**t and the patent is still invalid.
So ether way, this patent is invalid and this issue should be dropped by both parties.
Microsoft may be a big “Evil” corporation but they can be on the correct side of the law in some issues. Let’s condemn Microsoft for what it actually does wrong (it does enough already).
Re: Let's put the shoe on the other foot
Two wrongs != right.
Amado/Amada's great patent
So where can I buy his product so I can get my databases going again? I haven’t been able to turn everyone on to Access but they are still comfortable with Excel. Cough it up, buddy. I lost a lot or rep when Microsoft’s service pack came down the pipe.
Or is it that all you wanted to was prove your patent and run with the money?
Amado/Amada's great Patent
I agree with Beerman…where is the code and how can I get it.
Lawyers make a ton of money by patenting ideas and I don’t think ideas should have patents. Processes and Implementation can be patented but ideas…please… As brilliant as Amada was, he can’t possibly think he’s the only one or even the first to think it might be nice to sync data between access and excel. I know everyone hates microsoft but this guy was a gold digger.
You do not know what you are talking about
What angry dude is telling is true… Mr. Amado proved in court that he spent time with M$ engineers with the aid of invoices and tickets when M$ was denying it. He developed a product called Integra, that combined spreadsheet functionality with database storage. The product never came to light because Mr. Amado ran out of money to market it. He is a PHD from Stanford, indeed.
Please just check this out. You will notice a typical M$ behavior pattern.
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/board/mboard.pl/tnwtalkback/thread3384/3384.html
http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/printable.asp?m=109856