Microsoft hit…badly
I’m generally not a fan of seeing companies engage in patent-y stuff, but this one was so cool I couldn’t help but post it here:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39638887,00.htm
Microsoft was hit by USD$388,000,000 (watching the zeros makes me feel better 
). As soon as I read this, I remembered the case of M$ with TomTom.
jspaleta said,
April 9, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I HATE seeing this as it strengthens the case for software patents as being legitimate.
I’ve no love for MS, but I don’t want to see them harassed by software patents either…its just going to make them more active in accumulating and using their own software patents as tools to gain competitive advantage.
Business is a knock down, hold no punches street fight. We can’t really expect MS to hold back its punches when its getting knocked around. Software patents need to go away, so we can also spend less time and less money trying to cleverly avoid them.
-jef