MS Patent Threats

IRELAND -- In "Wired on Friday", Danny O'Brien dissects the meaning behind Microsoft stepping up its patent process. In the San Jose Mercury News, Dan Gillmor warns that Microsoft is prepared to sue governments that infringe on its patent properties. As everyone knows, you don't have to have a winning case. You just have to have money to grind down the opposition.

Microsoft has applied for a patent for the IsNot operator.

A system, method and computer-readable medium support the use of a single operator that allows a comparison of two variables to determine if the two variables point to the same location in memory.

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Danny O'Brien -- "Using a patent amnesty to choke off open source" in The Irish Times, November 19, 2004.
Dan Gillmor -- "Microsoft, Patents and Linux: A Shoe Drops"
Slashdot -- "Microsofot Patents IsNot Operator"
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