filed

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit claiming an online software operator breached nine of its patents. The general reaction thus far is that the case has much to do about trying to deter a business competitor, rather than protecting genuine innovation. ... The case is against Salesforce.com, a company which offers customer management services: its slogan is that it is "the enterprise cloud-computing company", an idea borne out by its phone number, 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE. Most of Salesforce's products are based on marketing campaigns and tracking sales leads, putting it directly in competition with Microsoft ... (view more)

Besides increased efficiency, widespread access to information, and improved communication, the advent of the Internet brought something else: confusion over legal rights. Recently, IBM joined the slew of snubbed patent owners and filed two lawsuits ... against Amazon.com, citing patent infringement. (Source: slashdot.org ) The lawsuits, which were filed in U.S District Court in Texas, allege that Amazon is using five IBM patents at the core of their operations. Ari Fishkind, Public Affairs Manager at IBM, stated that the patents "include technology that help present applications, store data, ... (view more)