by itself, yes this is a stupid patent. however this is not a stupid lawsuit by MS. this article sucks to highlight the lawsuit. most people are not reading p

by itself, yes this is a stupid patent. however this is not a stupid lawsuit by MS. this article sucks to highlight the lawsuit. most people are not reading past this is a stupid patent and they are suing corel for such a petty reason. from the actual complaint, microsoft patented the office 2007 UI and specific workflows over multiple patents including this simple stupid one. the others are fairly specific "Microsoft brings this action to protect its rights and investment in its innovations embodied in utility U.S. Patent Nos. 8,255,828 (“the ’828 patent”), 7,703,036 (“the ’036 patent”), 7,047,501 (“the ’501 patent”), 5,715,415 (“the ’415 patent”), 5,510,980 (“the ’980 patent”) and design U.S. Patent Nos. D550,237 (“the D’237 patent”), D554,140 (“the D’140 patent”), D564,532 (“the D’532 patent”), and D570,865 (“the D’865 patent,” collectively “the Microsoft Asserted Patents”), copied by Corel into its infringing products." "Corel has copied the look and feel of the Microsoft interfaces in its accused products. Among many examples, Help for WordPerfect X7 suggests that the user “simulate the Microsoft Word workspace until you are accustomed to work in WordPerfect”: " that is just the opener in the complaint, corel is using these same UIs in a "word mode" essentially cloning the patented "look and feel", which is against micrososft's licensing and use of these elements. https://www.eff.org/files/2015/12/28/microsoft_v_corel_-_complaint.pdf https://www.eff.org/files/2015/12/28/microsoft_v_corel_-_com... the patent doesnt seem so stupid when you put it all together with the other patents and can see what Microsoft was trying to protect overall.