http://www.thenationonlineng.com/dynamicpage.asp?id=70223

Microsoft Corp. sued a company that’s demanding royalties from its clients over software to perform Internet-based transactions.

Closely held WebXchange Inc. sued insurer Allstate Corp., shipper FedEx Corp. and computer-maker Dell Inc. in March, accusing them of infringing three patents awarded since 1998 for computer-network switching and routing. Microsoft’s complaint, filed Nov. 12 in a federal court in San Jose, California, seeks to challenge those patents, saying they are invalid and unenforceable.

The dispute is over Microsoft’s Visual Studio software, which allows companies to use a technology called Simple Object Access Protocol, or SOAP, for exchanging information over the Web. WebXchange claims that its patents cover "any real-time transaction on the Internet," Microsoft said.

"WebXchange has placed a cloud over Visual Studio software, Web services, and the SOAP protocol by asserting patents against Microsoft customers," Microsoft said in the complaint.

Dell, FedEx and Allstate have demanded that Microsoft cover any legal costs from the suits pending in Wilmington, Delaware, and the company is facing potential demands from other customers, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said.

"WebXchange’s strategy of accusing Microsoft’s customers one at a time, and refusing to deal with Microsoft, will force Microsoft to expend a disproportionate amount of resources responding to individual customer indemnification demands," Microsoft said in the complaint.

"WebXchange’s strategy, if allowed to continue, will also burden the courts with a large number of suits when the issues could be resolved in this single suit."

Lawyers for WebXchange didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

The case is Microsoft Corp. v. WebXchange Inc., 08cv5149, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose). The earlier cases are WebXchange Inc. v. The Allstate Corp., 08cv131; WebXchange Inc. v. FedEx Corp. 08cv133; and WebXchange v. Dell Inc., 08cv132, all U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Wilmington).