No Good patents
Software patents only hurt people who use software, not so much the people who write it.
Microsoft has been pushing for stronger software patent rules. MS wants to protect what they create. That's great. MS is finding that they are the target of more "protection" than they dish out.

"As reported by Info World, Microsoft was issued a cease and desist order on February 7 of this year by Vertical Computer Systems. The order was for patent infringement by the current implementations of the .NET framework. Both the .NET framework and Vertical Computer Systems' site flash use XML to create component-based structures that are used to build and operate web sites. Vertical Computer Systems is requesting a full jury trial. If VCS prevails, .NET technology implementations as we know them may completely change and Microsoft would probably have to pay out a hefty sum." Slashdot

That is one example. Now for the one I fought with all week.
It turns out that MS lost a lawsuit with a company that had a patent on how browsers use objects. Objects are all those things that make the web more than words and pictures. Flash, Java, PDF, and any number of other things that depend on how MS Internet Explorer uses objects to get their job done.
I had to get a Flash object up. I ran smack in to this trouble. Any time you have an object that pulls in something from outside the browser you get a huvering message that reads "".
I had to deal with a problem that the biggest software developer in the world could not deal with. I wonder how much money MS spends on lawyers and lobbyists every minute. I bet it is more than I'll make in a lifetime.

Microsoft Confirms IE Changes in Wake of Lawsuit "On Monday, Microsoft verified that it will be making what it calls "modest" changes to Windows and IE to meet the requirements of the jury verdict against it in the Eolas patent infringement case. Microsoft says it will finish making the changes to IE and Windows by early next year and will provide developers that use IE technology with documentation to help them modify their applications, Web pages, and browser plug-ins to work with the new plug-in scheme, which affects all Web pages that use plug-in technologies such as Adobe Reader, Apple QuickTime, Macromedia Flash, RealNetworks RealOne, all versions of Java, and Windows Media Player. A preview of the new user experience shows the user being prompted to confirm loading of each ActiveX control." Slashdot

OK, I have no idea how to explain this.
Imagine you are a web browser. Your user asks you to pick up a cup of coffee. If you lean over and pick it up, you are now violating this patent. You, as the browser, have to ask another program to hand you the cup of coffee. I know. It doesn't make sense. Software patents rarely do.
I wish I had paid more attention to this a long time ago when I read it.