06.27.07
Patent Troll Attacks Another Patent Troll — Microsoft Sued Over Tilted Mouse
Here we have yet another example among several recent ones. Just have a look at this new scoop and watch the figures in the short article.
The writ, issued in a Texas district court two days back, alleges that Microsoft, a co-defendant with Designer Appliances Inc, breached patent number 5,576,733 called “Ergonomic Computer Mouse”.
Recall what Mr. Gates said in the nineties.
Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, “If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.” Mr. Gates worried that “some large company will patent some obvious thing” and use the patent to “take as much of our profits as they want.”
Of course, Microsoft’s stance on patents has changed completely when it become “some large company”. Not only does it try to punish, but it gets punished as well. This demonstrates the serious problems which are too inherent and deeply integrated into the current patent system.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.