Jamie,

When has Microsoft ever sued over a patent? It is very rare and usually done as a counter suit measure against another company suing Microsoft.

I find this whole patent system pathetic but unfortunately its a fact of life. Whoever was on the panel to grant a patent for something as vague as that or like 'one-click shopping' (remember that?) oughta be hung drawn and quartered...

+++ Rick ---

>>>Check this out!
>>>http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/20/HNmsdotnetpatentsuit_1.html
>>
>>Mhhh... yeah. That company goes after the biggest target. Imagine - XML based syntax (which it is not BTW), in markup. Hmmm that would imply:
>>
>>Java Server Pages
>>Cold Fusion
>>ASP.NET
>>
>>and about a thousand smaller engines that all use that same model including smaller vendors like myself (who have been doing the exact same things since way before that patent was filed).
>>
>>It'll never hold up as yet another frivolous patent.
>
>I know this, but what bugs me is: what if MS wins the lawsuit, and patents it ( ie xml use in frameworks )...That would put all the others you mention in quite a bad situation...They're known for patenting anything everyone took for granted before, and at some point they start asking money for it...Heck they even tried with Active Directory until they got bitten by Novell ( of course this one got settled between both )...