More Microsoft Patents

An anonymous reader writes "One of the editors of LinuxWorld Magazine has an entry in his blog detailing more patents that Microsoft recently acquired. No, this isn't a rehash of the sudo patent. The new patents include one that seems to patent the use of the keyboard to navigate a web page! See the article here."

Comments

The reason...

[remin8]

Microsoft is filing all these patents recently is that they see themselves losing market share to Linux. They want to keep their profitability (stock) high by licensing/litigation revenue. I see it as a sign of *cough* (the year of Linux on the desktop) *cough*! Maybe that is a little ambitious, but I think MS is affraid!

Affect on Open Source

[mckevin]

Could this be MS's way of combating the open source threat to its dominance? What happens if MS decides to enforce one if its patents (using the tab key or generating a music snippet, for example) against Linux? Could MS use their patent portfolio to bring down or hamper the open source movement?

Rediculous

[blackholepcs]

I just want to add my two cents and say that all this patent stuff is getting to be rediculous. The ability to patent everyday things, like navigating a website using your keyboard, is just plain stupid. I can see patenting a specific key combo that controls a feature only available by the company applying for the patent, but the rest is just stupid. Next thing you know someone will patent the human reproduction system, or respiratory system. This is really getting out of hand. Just my two cents.