Microsoft at it again.

Microsoft is not a technology company. It is a consortium of suits with law degrees, that now exists for the sole purpose of leeching off of others to fend off it's long awaited and hoped for demise, using the depleting chest of money acquired through monopolistic practices.

I am ashamed that I own a patent earned while (equally ashamed to admit) working at this sanitized resort for professionals who have mentally checked out from innovation and technology a long time ago.

Not a long time ago, IBM was doing the same before it was forced to become a minnow in the industry, as this excerpt shows:

"In the 1980s, attorney Gary Reback was working at Sun Microsystems, then a young technology startup. A pack of IBM employees in blue suits showed up at Sun headquarters seeking royalties for 7 patents that IBM claimed Sun had infringed. The Sun employees, having examined the patents, patiently explained that six of the seven patents were likely invalid, and Sun clearly hadn’t infringed the seventh. Reback explains what happened next in this classic Forbes article:

An awkward silence ensued. The blue suits did not even confer among themselves. They just sat there, stonelike. Finally, the chief suit responded. “OK,” he said, “maybe you don’t infringe these seven patents. But we have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back to Armonk [IBM headquarters in New York] and find seven patents you do infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us $20 million?” After a modest bit of negotiation, Sun cut IBM a check, and the blue suits went to the next company on their hit list."

On Thursday, June 30th, Microsoft, in collusion with Apple, Nokia and RIM bought Nortel's 6000 patents spanning Mobile and Wireless technologies for $4.5 Billion, beating Google, who began the bid in April with $900 million. While in the smelling distance of the booty, they started threatening every handset manufacturer in sight for licensing Android patents, asking for as much as $15 per phone, while simultaneously offering indemnity from patent lawsuits for Windows Mobile based phones.

Android is no longer free.

Microsoft is once again trying to kill using underhanded tactics what they can never beat fairly. However, this time they may have punched above their diminishing weight.

Antitrust Institute has asked for an antitrust investigation into the bidding war for Nortel patents alleging collusion between Apple, RIM, Nokia and Microsoft to kill competition: . Barnes & Noble have responded to Microsoft claims. However, Motorola has suffered a setback while Samsung is trying to negotiate the price down to $10 per phone.

It is not surprising that other left for dead companies like RIM and Nokia are part of this collusion. This is not going to go down pretty.

I am hoping that by the time this has gone down, and the devil is paid his due, the monstrosity is relegated to the dustbins of history forever. Microsoft remains the single biggest shameless drag on innovation until that happens.