On any given day you can find thousands of words of reporting, advocacy and debate over the role of patents in technology. One side promotes the availability of patent protection as the source of much innovation, while the other contends that patents have exactly the opposite effect, and many other vices besides.

Microsoft's claims that open-source software infringes its patents do not apply in the UK, according to a top lawyer.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill to overhaul the nation's patent system, overcoming objections by many Republicans, small inventors and some labor unions.

Sun Microsystems Inc. CEO Jonathan Schwartz on Thursday used his blog to dispute Network Appliance Inc.'s charge that Sun's ZFS file system technology infringes on seven NetApp patents.

I have pointed this out time and again. Like it or not, the patent war is already here. Luckily, if it hits full throttle, Google will be a part of it on the side of Linux vendors. Google uses Linux and is ready to battle alongside the rest of Open Invention Network, utilizing a collection of Linux patents against Microsoft if it comes down to it.

Few events have created more fodder for the blogosphere, more fuel for Microsoft critics and more emotional responses than the Microsoft patent deals with Novell, Linspire and Xandros. While putting together a list of things people hate about these deals is easy, generating a list of positive aspects is much harder.

SCO lost. Novell owns the UnixWare copyrights SCO claimed. So does this mean any legal threat from Microsoft against Linux is over? I don’t think so. Here’s why.