Microsoft are being sued for patent infringement by a Guatemalan inventor who says they stole his software for linking Excel with Access, according to CNet:
In a lawsuit, Carlos Armando Amado said he filed a patent application in 1990 for software that links Microsoft's Excel program with its Access database application via a single spreadsheet, and that he unsuccessfully tried to sell it to Microsoft two years later.
Amado is seeking damages that could exceed $500 million in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Central California.
Patent infringements of this type are often impossible to pin down - and Microsoft has more than its fare share (the company says it has around 35 more infringement suits pending).
With no regard to this case, but to the general system of enforcing this kind of intellectual property, I often wonder if courts really understand the technology that's being talked about.
And if that's the case, can high-priced lawyers argue their way around genuine infringements by taking advantage of the court's naivety?
