Actually these people are PAYING for things MS claims are covered by their patents, not by any proven or court order. And its not google, its the MANUFACTURERS, though now with google makign phones they may have inherited any agreement motorola may have had with MSFT.
As a software developer myself, I find the whole patent thing a bit crazy, the patent office has no idea what they issue patents for..
For instance, entering a password to unlock it is a “PATENT”.. that’s crazy! But the Patent office issued a patent for it.. so that is why your droid has a different zip to the circles in the right order, its all just silliness.
Innovation is stifled by desigining around bogus patents that are meaningless except to lawyers and moochers.
I have no issues giving a patent to someone who truly invents something new, say a new encryption algorithm or something, but swiping a screen left to right is a patententable thing? Come on... its crazy.
It's beyond crazy, especially in the biomedical field. How do you patent genes, DNA and the fundamental building blocks of life? Michael Crighton wrote a really fascinating book called "Next". The Patent Office is issuing patents on things they do not comprehend, and are either too lazy or incompetent to consider the ramifications of what they are doing.
Software patents are merely a symptom of a much more serious problem. I wish I had a solution for this problem - I'd patent it.