“We’re not a company that’s prone to offensive patent litigation,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing. “In fact we’ve done it only in very exceptional cases, I would say to a much lesser degree than most other companies in the technology industry.”

The only question now is whether this is the bite that proves the bark, or another sign of the M$ death spiral. Given the other evidence, I’d say death spiral. The confident monopolist of 10 years ago would never have bothered.

Remember that some patent trolls can make a lot of money without ever going to court. How about Intellectual Ventures, which you can almost synonimise with a Microsoft spin-off? It pretends to be benevolent because it pressures (extorts), not sues.

Bark vs bite. Both are harmful.

I don’t think this development constitutes evidence of a change in MS policy. They remain reluctant to do anything (such as actually bringing suit) which might bring into question the viability of software patents. They might even prefer losing software patent infringement cases rather than lose having patents to threaten customers and to restrict competition from smaller upstart rivals — what’s a few hundred million in penalties if it lets you retain a stranglehold on an entire industry.