• ZDNet, Friday, May 21, 2010 12:30 PM

Earlier this week, Microsoft filed a federal lawsuit against online software company Salesforce.com of alleged patent infringements. On Thursday, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff said that, while he couldn't comment on pending litigation, "The reality is that these patent trolls are unfortunately just part of doing business and technology these days ... They're basically the alley thugs." If it's not clear, the 'they' that Benioff was referring is Microsoft. "Personally, I'm just disappointed to see this from a former leader of our industry."

Ouch! Either way," Benioff added, it's eminently resolvable and it's not material to our day-to-day business ... It's basically a no-impact situation ... It's not something that I think anyone needs to make anything of." 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."

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