Salesforce.com has sued Microsoft for patent infringement, making a move in response to an intellectual property suit Redmond filed against the on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) vendor last month.
Microsoft has been on the wrong side of a couple patent issues recently--the case with i4i over XML in Microsoft Word, and its recent settlement with VirnetX over VPN networking technology patents--but Microsoft does have an exhaustive portfolio of intellectual property and its not afraid to use it. Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against Salesforce.com alleging infringement of patents related to software efficiency.