Microsoft has settled a patent infringement lawsuit with Intertrust with a $440 million license deal. Actually Philips and Sony seem to be on the receiving side of those $440 million, since they bought out Intertrust last year.
Slashdot thread here.
I am sceptical of software patents and support the FFII in its opposition to legalizing them in Europe.
But whatever your position in that debate is, there sure is a lot of money involved. The stakes are high, as this case shows again clearly. One more reason to pay attention to this fight, which is nearing a decisive phase now in the European Union.
Axel H. Horns has recently posted a FAQ on computer-implemented inventions (software patents) supporting wider patentability of "computer-implemented inventions" (link credit: Rainer Langenhan). He is critical of the more restrictive view the European Union Parliament adopted last year. which he called an "earthquake".
In the context of this $440 million settlement, I want to highlight just one statement in his FAQ which I agree completely with:
(One of the answers to question 4): However, in particular some smaller companies or freelancer programmers may suffer difficulties in economic terms when attempting to allocate sufficient ressources to take care of patent infringement problems.
Indeed. If "sufficient ressources" means $440 million, very few companies will be able to "take care of patent infringement problems".
So, yes, it is only natural that those without the deep pockets and large lawyer armies needed to deal with software patents should be inclined to question the advisability of exploding all limits to patentability, removing their ability to compete in the process.