02.15.08
Business Method Patents Raise Serious Questions; Software Patents Assault Again
TrollTracker has identified an interesting and quickly- or widely-covered story about a key case that puts in jeopardy patents on business methods, an equally ugly sibling of software patents.
Dennis Crouch has an excellent summary of the Federal Circuit’s en banc order today, revisiting whether business method claims are patentable and whether State Street Bank should be overruled.
In other news, this time about software patents, both Google and Microsoft become the victim of trivialities being owned.
Last year, 13 patent-infringement claims were filed against Google, eight of them in the Eastern District of Texas. Seventeen patent suits were brought against Microsoft in the Eastern District of Texas in 2007, to say nothing of the wide array of cases brought against the company elsewhere.
Mind the fact that the plaintiff is from Ohio and the lawsuit was filed in — you’ve guess it — Eastern District of Texas. Maybe that district should start constructing some theme parks, hotels and motels. It will be getting many visitors and plenty of business unless the USPTO gets its act together. And fast! █
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.