Microsoft Web site reveals a Microsoft lobbying arm trying to pass the notorious Community Patent

Attempts to exorcise software patents are met with resistance through secret trade agreements like ACTA

Last week we saw Microsoft coming under fire in Europe. When one talks about the EU, however, there’s a distinction to be made. Brits tend to think of the EU as continental Europe, whose attitude and response to Microsoft has been lukewarm for quite some time, unlike Britain which happily lets itself be shackled by Microsoft.

Lots of news about patents, including the problems in Europe and Microsoft's patent troll of choice.

A jury in Rhode Island found Microsoft guilty of patent infringement, ordering it to pay US$388 million to Uniloc, the patent holder.

Enlarged Board
The reason this has now come to a head in Europe is because the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has been debating whether software patents should be enforceable in EU counties. The battleground is Article 52 of the European Patent Convention, which specifically states what's excluded from patent protection.

Various fronts, some of which associated/funded by Microsoft, are pushing for software patents in Europe using at least two back doors (harmonisation; Community Patent).

Reform is ahead, Microsoft plays mental games against Linux, Microsoft-affiliated patent harvesters revisited and studied

Are you still using Microsoft Office 2003? If so, get ready to have problems opening older file formats with it once SP3 is applied: Microsoft has decided to disable file parsers for the older file types (Word 95 and older, Wordperfect, Lotus etc.) by default. Why? Security reasons.