The Redmond behemoth asserts that one reason free software is of such high quality is that it violates more than 200 of Microsoft’s patents. And as a mature company facing unfavorable market trends and fearsome competitors like Google, Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won’t be free anymore.
This isn’t going to end until a Judge ends it. As far as I know, the patents in question are known by no one, except Microsoft. It’s going to be an interesting few months, although it’s going to be amazing if Linux actually does directly violate patents.
Source: CNN Money