[ Thanks to Steven J.
Vaughan-Nichols for this link. ]
“Not, mind you that that whether a patent is valid
really matters. Bad patents, like the ones used by NTP against RIM
(Research in Motion) in the Blackberry patent case, work just as
well as good ones for shaking money out of companies. In NTP vs.
RIM, for example, all of NTP’s patents have run into serious
trouble, but RIM was still forced to pay NTP $612.5-million to keep
everyone’s Blackberries running. Oh, and three years later, the NTP
patents, although regarded by everyone, outside of NTP’s owners and
employees as junk, have still not been finally over-turned and they
may not be finally thrown out for another half-dozen years.“In short, Microsoft can forget about getting this patent
over-turned as a quick way out of its Word troubles.”