Well, either one of the following things must be true:
- I am misremembering the past
- The published record misrepresents the past
- The motivations at the time were not visible to the community (i.e. the published record is correct and I am not misremembering but that's because the user community never saw it)
https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/patent-suit-against-red-h...
https://www.theregister.com/2004/11/18/ballmer_linux_lawsuit...