I love reading software patents. From the article: 32. Of the patents Microsoft threatened Barnes & Noble with in the past, Microsoft has only sued Microsoft o

I love reading software patents. From the article: 32. Of the patents Microsoft threatened Barnes & Noble with in the past, Microsoft has only sued Microsoft on the ’780 patent. Barnes & Noble denies that the accused NookTM and Nook ColorTM devices infringe any valid, enforceable claim of the ’780 patent. The ’780 patent appears to cover nothing more than placing a loading status icon in the content viewing area of a browser. In that patent, Microsoft concedes that loading status icons and content viewing areas of a browser were both known in the prior art. The prior art placed the loading status icon outside of the viewing area, but it is nothing short of obvious to place it in the content viewing area (since there are only two locations for such an icon—either in or out of the content viewing area).