• CNet, Wednesday, May 19, 2010 11:45 AM

Claiming broad patent infringement, Microsoft just filed a federal lawsuit against online software company Salesforce.com. "The lawsuit ... seeks both monetary damages as well as temporary and permanent injunctions," according to CNet's Beyond Binary blog. "Specifically, the company seeks a jury trial and also asks that the damages be tripled and that Salesforce be ordered to pay legal fees and other costs, arguing that the company's patent infringement is willful."

The patents -- nine in all -- reportedly cover a variety of back-end and user interface features, ranging from one covering a "system and method for providing and displaying a Web page having an embedded menu" to another that covers a "method and system for stacking toolbars in a computer display." Microsoft sells its own online CRM software, though none of the patents it is suing over are specifically related to that product. "We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard that investment, and therefore cannot stand idly by when others infringe our IP rights," Microsoft's deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement.

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