The patent suits keep on rolling in and this time the fight is on between Microsoft and Salesforce.com.
Microsoft filed a suit in a federal court in Seattle yesterday against the software as a service (SaaS) provider, claiming it had infringed nine of its patents.
The patents themselves focus on behind the scenes technologies and user interfaces, including "[the] method and system for mapping between logical data and physical data [the] system and method for providing and displaying a web page having an embedded menu [and the] method and system for stacking toolbars in a computer display."
Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing for Microsoft, said in a statement: "Microsoft has been a leader and innovator in the software industry for decades and continues to invest billions of dollars each year in bringing great software products and services to market."
"We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard that investment, and therefore cannot stand idly by when others infringe our IP rights."
Microsoft is calling for a jury trial to take place and is asking for monetary compensation, wanting treble the damages against the accused as it believes the infringements were "wilful and deliberate."
We contacted Salesforce.com but the company declined to give comment on the case.
Microsoft is more the target of lawsuits, with recent cases featuring VirtenX, i4i and Emblaze.
