

Microsoft Patents Infinite Hybrid Cloud Data Storage - peternorton
http://www.conceivablytech.com/9201/business/microsoft-patents-infinite-hybrid-cloud-data-storage

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SoftwarePatent
I've worked as a patent lawyer. If this patent worries you, take a look at the
claims (Ctrl+F for "claims")

[http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Se...](http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,010,498.PN.&OS=PN/8,010,498&RS=PN/8,010,498)

In order to directly infringe a patent, you have to do _everything_ in a
claim. Now look at Claim 1. It is very long, with lots of clauses. That is a
sign that the PTO pushed back hard against the lawyer writing the patent,
making him add more and more clauses to the claim, until it was so long that
no one will ever infringe it by doing all these things.

Why would a company spend $10k+ to get such a patent? Is this what Thomas
Jefferson had in mind? Companies get patents like this to add to their "patent
portfolio", which is both a club and a shield in patent litigation with other
companies. This patent by itself is worthless, but when you sue somebody, you
cam dump 500 patents in their (lawyer's) lap, and it will take a few hours for
some associate billing $300+/hr. to figure out it's worthless. This drives up
their litigation costs and encourages them to settle. It's a terrible system,
it hurts innovation, it hurts small companies at the expense of big ones, and
society would be better off without it.

