Florian Mueller, who writes at FOSS Patents and often takes a harsh stance on Google in covering patent related litigation, has revealed that he’s being funded by Microsoft to create a new study related to “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing obligations”.
While mentioning his usually “anti-Google stance”, Google’s Matt Cutts points out on Google+ that Mueller is a patent analyst and “not a lawyer”, and also links to a post discussing the study.
Mueller explains:
“Microsoft has commissioned this study. I will present my findings next year in a published report. The industry at large relies and depends on FRAND commitments. So does Microsoft, which owns a significant number of standards-essential patents but licenses many more of them from other right holders. Given the strength of Microsoft’s patent portfolio and the large scale of its inbound and outbound licensing activities, I am proud that they are interested in my analysis of, and perspective on, the related issues.”
seriously microsoft should get a life
FYI, Microsoft commissioned his study only after he wrote about Google's weakness in IP.
Mueller only disclosed his funding by Microsoft after he wrote about Google's weakness in IP.
Now we can officially refer to Mueller by his new title "Microsoft-funded anti-Google IP law enthusiast and blogger"
You're suggesting he should have built a time machine so he could disclose it before it happened?
What a terribly misleading headline. It implies that Microsoft funded his supposedly "anti-Google" stance which is obviously not true, even according to this very article. What gives?
Mueller has provided a very balanced view of the patent battles all over the world between the tech giants. He is a patent analyst/professional. So if Microsoft is using his services and he is providing a disclaimer, it's rather lame to accuse him of being open. Follow him on @FOSSPatents if you really want to know the kind of analysis he provides.
Mueller has provided a very balanced view of the patent battles all over the world between the tech giants. He is a patent analyst/professional. So if Microsoft is using his services and he is providing a disclaimer it's lame to accuse him of being a schill. Follow him @FOSSPatents and decided for yourself if he's anti-google or not. I know for sure he doesn't use a WP7
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Mueller has been consistently biased against Google, it doesn't matter whether MSFT was/is behind it or not, people should see through his bias even without this news.