This week Microsoft has taken the decision to file a lawsuit against CRM competitor Salesforce for infringements of software patents.
 
Microsoft vs Salesforce on Yahoo News

It’s all very well for the big mega-global corporation to rinse the little guy for outright plagiarism, but it appears that this case seems to be centred on patents that date back to the early days of the internet.  For example Salesforce uses drop down menus on a web based application which is in violation of the patent.... There can’t be many web based apps that don’t have drop down menus can there??

It looks to me that Microsoft feel directly threatened by Salesforce’s Software as a Service model and have put their team of hot shot patent lawyers on the case.  This act could be devastating for Salesforce which they might have to simply bend over and take – but equally I believe this could turn into a PR shot in the foot for Microsoft.

Unsurprisingly several CRM SaaS competitors have publicly come out in support of Salesforce.

http://blogs.zoho.com/general/we-are-all-salesforce-today
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2341-microsoft-patent-trolls-salesforce

Microsoft aren’t the only bad guys here.  Historically Microsoft themselves have been on the receiving end of patent infringement lawsuits several times.  Apple have similar cases against the likes of HTC and a recent patent seems to be aimed at protecting themselves against handheld devices with a curved back that look anything like an iPhone.  Amazon were branded as evil for obtaining and enforcing a “one-click” patent.  Surely the software patent should be the equivalent of a nuclear deterrent when companies use them defensively to ward off copy cat competition. It seems like there is a trend for trying to obliterate good ideas by lawsuits whereas in the past this would have been achieved via acquisition.

This trend is likely to only serve to stifle future innovation and competition which can only be a bad thing.