The real patent threat: Not Microsoft
Microsoft is not the biggest threat to open source: Intellectual Ventures may be. Arguably the world's largest patent troll, it is set up to simply license its IP.
When I negotiate contracts with customers, intellectual-property indemnification is always the top legal concern. Always.
But it's not because of Microsoft and its recent TomTom patent lawsuit, or other such infringement suits between vendors. The concern is almost wholly related to patent trolls, and predominately because they have no vested interest in keeping customers happy, whereas vendors must...vend, and so can't afford to unduly upset customers.
Hence, while the open-source world is up in arms about Microsoft's TomTom patent suit, it should be far more worried about news that Intellectual Ventures has grabbed another 500 patents through a deal with Telcordia Technologies, as TechFlash reports. Intellectual Ventures, arguably the world's largest patent troll, is set up to do nothing more than license its intellectual property, which it has done to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Microsoft has its problems with patent FUD, which I've called out many times before. But Microsoft is a relatively minor problem compared to a firm like Intellectual Ventures.
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