Microsoft Assembles Patent Arsenal for Longhorn

stock writes "The heat is on. Inside eweek.com are some remarkable articles: 'You see, Microsoft is busy patenting everything it can lay its hands on with all three. In fact, Microsoft is now building up its patent arsenal, applying for a rather amazing 10 patents a day. The idea isn't to ensure that Microsoft makes a fair profit from its patents; it's to make sure that no one else can write fully compatible software.' An older article mentions some other patents."

Comments

Patent to apply for

[raider_red]

I'm applying for a patent on my business model which involves abusing American Intellectual Property law by filing endless frivolous patents. (I'm hoping MS and SCO don't try to claim prior art.)

"Microsoft Inventor" Software

[AtariAmarok]

Has anyone else tried the "Microsoft Inventor" application? I think Bill has the only copy, but it has a function where it automatically submits random word strings to the US patent office as complete patent applications.

Sample output:

e-commerce

e-communism

e-constipation

e-conifer

one-click shopping

one-click shipping

one-clock shopping

one-click slapping

BASIC

ADA

difference engine

mouse

rat

.....

Not only this, but it can generate 1,400 patent applications per day, all conveniently dated to 1878 so you can beat everyone to the punch. Microsoft "Created" this after it embraced and extended a third-party password-guesser program.

Huzzah for title truncation!

[American AC in Paris]

Thanks to Mozilla's tabs, the title for this article displays as:

Slashdot | Microsoft Assembles Patent Arse...