"The debate over software patents is coming to a head as the
European Union goes the way of the United States and knuckles under
the pressure brought by large patent-holding interests led by
Microsoft. The open-source folks are moaning about this as--on the
surface--it looks like the software patent decision in favor of
large corporations is ruining any hopes that small fry will succeed
in the business. In fact, the opposite may be true, and Microsoft
will eventually learn that software patents are going to ruin the
company..."