The issue is that there are two kind of patent threats. Real threats from bad patents, and bad threats from real patents. The first kind draws lots of media attention because the battles are waged in open court and involve patents that have a decent shot of getting invalidated. Examples included the case of NPT vs. Blackberry and Eolas vs. Microsoft.

The second group contains patents from large companies. Their patents might not be any better, but their owners aren't merely looking for licence fees. They can also use their intellectual property to protect their market position or use it as change in negotiations with other patent gorillas.

Just like nuclear weapons, these patents are hardly ever enforced. Because the result of a patent war is just as impossible to predict as that of a nuclear holocaust.

When Novell negotiated its patent truce with Microsoft, it must have thought that patents were thrown in as change. Customers from both Microsoft and Novell wanted a patent covenant, so let's give them one.

But as Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said last Thursday, the company still considers open source a real threat to its patent portfolio and intellectual property. To Microsoft, the patent covenant is about paying respect to the power of Redmond.

After all, who cares about customers when there is money to be made?

Hovsepian and Ballmer cuddle up. Has the adrenaline rush worn off yet?

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