A complex patent battle is brewing between Microsoft Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc., which has already sued two of Microsoft's biggest customers and privately warned Microsoft that it may be infringing Lucent patents.Well, I know Bell Labs has innovated plenty. Microsoft has only innovated "Clippy".
Lucent, which holds patents spawned by research at Bell Laboratories, filed little-noticed patent-infringement charges against Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW - News) last year and Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - News) in February. Dell and Gateway, in turn, have asked Microsoft to indemnify them on grounds the suits appear to be targeted at technologies that come from Microsoft.