[the invisib1e hand]

If that patent were ruled to be invalid, Microsoft would lose some of the licensing fees it has been choking out of competitors. We are watching this one with popcorn in hand.

I'm not necessarily a fan (not an obsessive one, anyway) of msft. I am, however, quite committed to the idea of protection of intellectual property rights.

If Torvalds prevails, and collects a settlement from microsoft (which he probably will one way or another), will the trade press run an\ correction stating that "Microsoft has been choking [licensing fees] out of it's competitors on behalf of Linus Torvalds"?

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

That’s an interesting way of looking at it.

I don’t think we’ll see headlines along those lines though. :-)

[Texas Fossil]

If Torvalds prevails, and collects a settlement from microsoft

Sounds like Torvalds has already prevailed. He will not collect a settlement from Microsoft, but he has made a good point.

[fireman15]

will the trade press run an\ correction stating that “Microsoft has been choking [licensing fees] out of it's competitors on behalf of Linus Torvalds”?

I would think that since Linux was released as open source that there is a good chance that Microsoft will be refunding the fees that they collected and nothing will go to Linus.