Californian software firm chooses to pay for Microsoft’s “non-innovative” code

The Wall Street Journal reports that “[u]nder threat of new multimillion fines, Microsoft Corp. said Thursday […] it had signed up its first licensee for a scheme EU regulators told it to set up three years ago to share code that helps servers work with the Windows operating platform.”  In fact, California-based Quest software "chose to sign their license the same day the Commission issued its statement of objections on protocol royalties, even though [Microsoft] had agreed on terms with Quest some weeks ago", showing that the Californian firm believes the royalty rate is reasonable. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, “[a] film studio owned by technology and media entrepreneur Mark Cuban asked a U.S. federal court to force Google Inc. to identify people who put its copyrighted videos on Google Video and YouTube, Cuban said Wednesday.”

Internetnews.com wonders, “[w]ill Google buy Saleforce.com?”

According to the Washington Times, “Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told Congress yesterday that overhauls of the nation’s schools and immigration laws are urgently needed to keep jobs from going overseas.”

CNetNews.com has a piece by Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith today in which Smith says that, as witnessed by its deal with Novell, Microsoft believes “one of the best ways to strike [a] balance [between innovation, economic growth and the needs of consumers], and reduce unnecessary patent litigation in the process, is through widespread licensing of patented technologies.”