Isn't that easy to counter?

Isn't that easy to counter?

There is a simple answer to give to people who listen to Microsoft's FUD related to Linux and IP: last week, Microsoft has been condamned by the american justice to pay $520M to a 1-employee californian startup that owns a patent on browser plug-ins. Because of that, it is very likely that IE will have to be modified not to work with plug-ins anymore, and therefore a huge number of web-sites will have to be re-written (including a lot of famous names such as CNN.com). This demonstrates 2 things:

1) That the USA patent system is completely ridiculous and harmfull for the economy (but everyone knows that)

2) That Microsoft itself is not exactly a model in Intellectual Property rights.