[OT] Microsoft filled patent applications for scoped and immutable types

[Messenger via Digitalmars-d]

On Tuesday, 26 August 2014 at 21:26:36 UTC, H. S. Teoh via 
Digitalmars-d wrote:
> D has had immutable for years! Surely that counts as prior art??

If the patent passes for whatever reason, this becomes a valid 
point if and only if you have the resources to contest its 
validity. The patent holder can effectively strongarm you into 
paying for licensing unless you have the (upwards of) hundreds of 
thousands of dollars needed for lawyer fees. They need only to 
drag out the court proceedings to starve you monetarily and win 
by walkover.

It's not a far stretch to make an analogy to protection rackets, 
and it seems to me that the very point of patents has been 
subverted.