Linux Vendor Settles With Microsoft (InformationWeek)

Completely agree. As soon as one of Microsoft's victims wins one of these patent battles instead of settling out of court, Microsoft's ability to bully smaller companies into making these sort of payments will be diminished. Of course, this does nothing for the overall patent situation in the US, but that will be a change long in coming. It's important to put a stop to these litigation threats to protect open source innovation in the short term.