Re: [Trisquel-users] What are these patents that MS owns in Linux? More and more people are paying.

[alonivtsan]

There might be another reason for all these patent deals. Microsoft probably  
offers their products at a reduced price (and advertising money to sell these  
products if they are part of a laptop or a cellphone) in return for these  
patent deals just like they give OEMs a cheaper price for Windows if they  
write "Dell/Asus recommends Windows 7" on their websites. Microsoft might  
also offer to give a certain amount of the next patent deal they sign to the  
OEMs. So it's a pretty good deal for tablet OEMs to get access to Microsoft  
patents for a few bucks per unit, which provides them a cheaper Windows  
license for the laptops they sell.