This is how a Microsoft exec described the patents when they filed suit against B&N [1] (see [2,3] for details) The Microsoft-created features protected by the

This is how a Microsoft exec described the patents when they filed suit against B&N [1] (see [2,3] for details) The Microsoft-created features protected by the patents infringed by the Nook and Nook Color tablet are core to the user experience. For example, the patents we asserted today protect innovations that: • Give people easy ways to navigate through information provided by their device apps via a separate control window with tabs; • Enable display of a webpage’s content before the background image is received, allowing users to interact with the page faster; • Allow apps to superimpose download status on top of the downloading content; • Permit users to easily select text in a document and adjust that selection; and • Provide users the ability to annotate text without changing the underlying document. And here's a list of patents from a lawsuit against Mororola [4] (the first two concern FAT16 I believe): 5,579,517: Common name space for long and short filenames 5,758,352: Common name space for long and short filenames (yes, again) 6,621,746: Monitoring entropic conditions of a flash memory device as an indicator for invoking erasure operations 6,826,762: Radio interface layer in a cell phone with a set of APIs having a hardware-independent proxy layer and a hardware-specific driver layer 6,909,910: Method and system for managing changes to a contact database 7,644,376: Flexible architecture for notifying applications of state changes 5,664,133: Context sensitive menu system/menu behavior 6,578,054: Method and system for supporting off-line mode of operation and synchronization using resource state information 6,370,566: Generating meeting requests and group scheduling from a mobile device As for your questions: So why is it wrong for them to put a claim on it? Wouldn't Apple do the same? It's not like Apple gets a free pass when they sue Android manufacturers for patent infringement... [1] http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2011/03/21/android-patent-infringement-licensing-is-the-solution.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2... [2] http://androidcommunity.com/barnes-noble-reveals-microsofts-android-patents-in-detail-20111114/ http://androidcommunity.com/barnes-noble-reveals-microsofts-... [3] http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011111122291296 http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011111122291296 [4] http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/01/microsoft-files-itc-patent-complaint-against-motorolaandroid/ http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/01/microsoft-files-itc-p...