One of our goals in this Web site is to show that software patents and so-called 'junk patents' are nothing to be afraid of. In fact, we strive to show that they must be eliminated because they do more harm than good to inventors, to investors (as confirmed by the New York Times a fortnight ago), and to industry (the consumer).

The deals which Linux companies struck with Microsoft do not change anything, apart from perception. Here are some new reports that could teach you that the industry is getting fed up with spurious lawsuits that involve 'ownership' of any concept under the sun.

How a Patent Ruling Is Changing Court Cases

"The Supreme Court has made it clear what it thinks," the judge said at a hearing in the case. "Patents are being issued on obvious inventions, and it tightened the reins."

In the following case, Microsoft gets stung as well and, as usual, it escapes its problems by paying some money.

Microsoft Reaches Settlement on EOLAS Patent

EOLAS applied for a patent in 1994 and the PTO awarded it to him in 1998. In this controversial patent, Michael Doyle claims to have invented the mechanism by which a hypermedia browser embeds the output of another program and allows the user to control it directly.

The following comes from a 'Microsoft guy', mind you, but it is still worth citing.

There was a hullabaloo recently about Microsoft rattling their software patent sabers. Sadly, there's nothing notable about it; this is simply business as usual for everyone in the software industry. Software companies are forced to build huge stockpiles of software patents solely to be used as deterrents.

[...]

Something has to be done, or else we truly are staring down a coming software patent apocalypse.

USPTO just needs to end the madness. It took some steps recently in order to cut down the acceptance rate, but what will be the destiny of junk patents that are already filed?

Update: news just in. This one is amazing: Company Sues Sony, Wants PlayStation 3s 'Impounded And Destroyed' (yes, because of patents)