Summary: The lawsuits from Quest Software begin to make more sense given its new obligations to Microsoft, being a part of an "Alliance"

Several months ago we wrote about Quest's lawsuits against Centrify [1, 2, 3] and Likewise [1, 2, 3, 4]. We said that it validated concerns about using Microsoft APIs, like Mono does. Well, based on this new press release and coverage from Microsoft's part-time booster Stephen Withers, Quest is in fact promoting its buddy Microsoft, so those lawsuits make more sense now. If Microsoft does not sue Xamarin for patent violation (the Mono project is no longer with Novell and Novell's deal will expire in January), how can anybody assure that no patent troll will emerge?

Consider Acacia (connections to Microsoft and its former staff in there) and mind the preparation for yet more lawsuits, which conveniently exclude Microsoft. Microsoft pays Acacia, but has not sued in a while. On the other hand, Microsoft gets sued over Kinect after Microsoft ripped off the people with the idea...and even CIFS and Java to a great degree. ⬆