12.19.07
Quick Mention: Software Patent Lawsuit, Courtesy of an Accenture Shark
Another day, another lawsuit over the use of algorithms.
Accenture Ltd (ACN.N) said on Tuesday it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Guidewire Software Inc over an insurance claims management technology.
Accenture said in a statement its lawsuit alleges that Guidewire “misappropriated Accenture trade secrets relating to the design, coding and implementation of the claims management technology Accenture developed and patented.”
While there’s not much information about what they call “design”, how can “coding and implementation” be a case of misappropriation, unless there is plagiarism involved (SCO’s lies spring to mind)? May this be another fine example of the ownership of logic and mathematics, whose ‘theft’ is considered “misappropriation”? Here is a video that explains why software patents are destructive to industry and another that shows protests across Europe. █
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.