Microsoft Sues Salesforce.com Over Patents

Microsoft is taking its fight with Salesforce.com to the courtroom. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant slapped the smaller, cloud-based player with a lawsuit charging Salesforce.com with infringement on a handful of Microsoft patents, but the acrimony between the two has been building for some time.

After all, Salesforce’s (NYSE: CRM) whole premise is centered around convincing customers to avoid on-site software deployments and instead, leverage the cloud for on-demand CRM and other enterprise applications. Microsoft, meanwhile, comes from a background in deployed software but has been busy playing catch-up with Salesforce and similar software-as-a-service plays, rolling out cloud initiatives of its own. Datamation takes a look at the lawsuit and its implications.

Microsoft on Tuesday filed a patent infringement suit against Salesforce.com, accusing the on-demand CRM trailblazer of violating nine Microsoft patents.

Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), said in a statement that his company “has been a leader and innovator in the software industry for decades and continues to invest billions of dollars each year in bringing great software products and services to market. 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.”

Read the full story at Datamation:


Microsoft Hits Salesforce With Patent Infringement Suit