What Patents Does Microsoft Have?

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2007-09-13 00:32:34 UTC
Modified: 2007-09-13 00:32:34 UTC

In these days of concern and amid many attempts to create legal uncertainty and fear, one ought ask: what type of things does Microsoft patent? Here are some of the very latest 'innovations', which also happen to be consumer-hostile.

New Microsoft Patents

Punishment patents are a reflection of malice.

On Tuesday, the USPTO granted Microsoft a patent for privacy policy change notification, which describes how to threaten users with the loss of their accounts and access to web sites and services should they refuse to consent to changes in a privacy policy.

DRM patents are yet another (sure-to-fail) attempt to create a system that cannot be cracked and will not hurt innocent customers.

Microsoft has won a patent for a digital-watermarking technology that is inaudibly embedded in the audio signal and cannot be removed

Recent Microsoft Patent Applications

And everyone loves forced advertisements, right?

"The kernel meets The Colonel in a just-published Microsoft patent application for an Advertising Services Architecture, which delivers targeted advertising as 'part of the OS.'

Not to mention how much people appreciate intrusion...

The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files, user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more. How could we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer status messages?

Needless to say, none of these insidious patents can actually affect Linux. Linux and Free software honour the consumer rather than utilise methods that exploit users for profits.

Harassments Attack

Another nasty new lawsuit targets a lot of the Wi-Fi sector.

NTP Inc. sued Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. for infringing on its patents related to mobile email services, a follow-up to its high-profile litigation with BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd. - Amol Sharma, WSJ.com

This could wreak havoc everywhere, except some layers' bank accounts.

Altering Perceived Reality to Make It Seem Like Microsoft is Thriving, Not Failing: pretend XBox did not die
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Off Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800: For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
Where and How to Spot LLM Slop: Many people correctly perceive LLMs as a site's downfall, a step towards the abyss
Links 25/03/2026: Nations Return to Russian Oil and Burning Wood: Links for the day
IBM Pushes Workers Out, It Does Not Count Them as "Layoffs": The number of IBM layoffs can be as large as tens of thousands per year
Hard to Find a Job After Working for Microsoft (Back Doors Giant, Bribery Hub): It generally looks like people who chose to serve Microsoft's agenda don't end up too well
Microsoft Lost 31% Of Its Alleged "Value" in Five Months, Then It Got Downgraded: In 2026 Microsoft focuses on keeping the layoffs silent
SLAPP Censorship - Part 24 Out of 200: The Failed Effort by Brett Wilson LLP to Strike Out My Lawsuit and My Wife's Lawsuit Against Garrett (the Master Allowed Our Lawsuits to Proceed): This is lawfare
Official New Figures Show That Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Sees Rise in Dishonesty Among Law Firms Forcibly Shut Down ('Euthanised' Due to Misconduct): It's rather if in our little country as many as 16 law firms were found to be so dishonest that they needed to be shut down
Back to Normalcy: In our datacentre at least
IBM is "Increasing Its Temporary and Part-time Headcount" While Net Headcount Falls (Despite Buying Many Companies and Their Workforce): Headcount is a rather superficial yardstick.
EPO Union Decides to Continue Industrial Actions, Next Strike in Four Days: The latest strike had the highest participation rate
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 25, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Microsoft's "Silent Layoffs" in Slop Clothing: "AI-powered transformation" is just a euphemism for mass layoffs
Public Talk by Richard Stallman in Half a Day "at the Engineering and Architecture Campus of Cesena of the University of Bologna": He'll probably attract a fairly large crowd
Gemini Links 26/03/2026: Buying a House, Stargazing, OFFLFIRSOCH 2026: Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/03/2026: Resisting Authoritarianism and Why Slop Needs to Go Away: Links for the day
Fedora Maintainer-ship Using Slop (Mistakes) Would Make Fedora Less Reliable: It won't produce reliable code or stable systems one can rely upon
IBM's "Legacy Employees" (Experienced Workers, IBM Management Dubs Them 'Dinobabies'): This notion of "legacy employees" seems like something overlapping with "expensive" (well paid) staff, even if not entirely equivalent
EPO's "Current Industrial Actions Are Likely to Intensify Further.": There is another strike in 5 days
This Morning The Register MS Published Slop Promotion With the Term "AI" 15 Times In It. The Register MS Was (As Usual) Paid to Do This: This is not a serious publisher
SLAPP Censorship - Part 23 Out of 200: We Were Right All Along (for 2 Years) About Third Party Funding and Willingness to 'Break the Bank' in Pursuit of "Revenge": How much damage can a person do to oneself in pursuit of cover-up of legitimate technical concerns?
Gnome Foundation Inc is in Trouble: the agenda is set GAFAM and IBM rather than donors
Links 25/03/2026: Airports Further Militarised, "Slopification and Its Discontents", Microsoft 'Open' 'Hey Hi' Shutting Things Down: Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/03/2026: Blogging Fright and Absolutely Useless 'Apps' Made by Slop Machines: Links for the day
Rise in Energy Prices Will Significantly Accelerate the Death of So-called "AI Companies": It should be noted that fake news about Microsoft OpenAI doubling workforce (mere words, not actions) can serve as a nice distraction from the death of Sora due to divestment
It's Always a Question of Trust: There's a widespread stigma of lawyers being manipulative and chronically dishonest
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Must More Carefully Investigate or Assess the Financial State of Law Firms in the UK: We'll cover this in depth in the future
GAFAM Mozilla Removes Theora Support, Now GNU Needs to Re-encode Videos: Mozilla used to mean something to Free software advocates
An Open Admission Profits Depend on Addiction: Proprietary software tends to be like this
IBM Americas President Ayman Antoun Comes to OpenText, Weeks Ahead the Mass Layoffs Begin: Is that what IBM will be good at?
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 24, 2026: IRC logs for Tuesday, March 24, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 22 Out of 200: When You Complain People Impersonate You in IRC (But You Yourself Impersonate People in IRC and Lock Them Out of Their IRC Handles): We'll cover this with direct evidence some time soon
Gemini Links 24/03/2026: Junk Drawer Time Capsule and Building Outside Alire: Links for the day
Not Much LLM Slop About "Linux" Lately, It Only Ever Comes From the Same Few Sites: As long as only few such sites use LLM slop we can skip and avoid them
Links 24/03/2026: "Epic Lays Off Over 1000 Employees" and US in Financial Trouble According to the Fed: Links for the day
The "Media" Does Not Only 'Miss' Mass Layoffs: "The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it"
The Empty Suits of IBM Managers (NIH or "Nothing Invented Here"): IBM's management adopted the business model of parasites
2012: 'Secure' (Microsoft-Controlled) Boot Has Not (Yet) Been Made Obligatory. 2026: systemd Has Not Implemented Age Verification: should we stop calling "nazi" everyone we don't agree with?
More Threats (Including Physical Threats) Against Us Are a Dumb Move: It's like a "hit list" (targets list) and I shall keep the police duly informed
New Example of Pentagon in "Feminist" Clothing Inside Fake News of Publishers Paid to Promote Outsourcing to US ("Clown Computing") and American Slop: Google now pays money to promote Google as a friend of women
Hating Techrights is a Career: but is it good for civil society?
Dr. Stallman’s Work Will Never be Considered 'Mainstream' Because He Rejects and Works Against the So-called 'Mainstream': Try to be more like Stallman
The New Layoffs: 'Silent Layoffs', 'Secret Layoffs', 'Quiet Layoffs', 'Passive Layoffs' 'Stealth Layoffs', and Unannounced Layoffs Disguised as Return-to-Office (RTO Mandates): The US needs to revisit and fix the WARN Act
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part IX - Cocaine Addicts in Charge of the EPO Attacking Families of EPO Staff: Things like being high-profile and being a serious drug addict aren't opposites
What Feminism in Science Means (Codes of Conduct Don't Tackle the Real Issues): Universality matters, more so in a project or community that's said to build the "universal operating system" (Debian)
SLAPP Censorship - Part 21 Out of 200: It's About Behaviour Online, Not How Much Money From Shadowy Third Parties Gets Spent on Lawyers and Two Barristers: 75+ KG of legal papers, 2 cases, 2 barristers (one hiding in the metadata) and maybe two law firms (also hiding in the metadata) against two modest people in Manchester seems disproportionate and vindicative
Links 24/03/2026: "Airports on ICE" and "Have You Paid Your “Intuit Tax”?": Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/03/2026: Slop Interview and Why Slop Makes Lousy Code: Links for the day
Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk This Thursday at the University of Bologna (Italy): Hardly the first time he speaks in Bologna
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 23, 2026: IRC logs for Monday, March 23, 2026

What Patents Does Microsoft Have?

New Microsoft Patents

Recent Microsoft Patent Applications

Harassments Attack

Recent Techrights' Posts