As Microsoft and Corel battle in patent lawsuits, EFF notes the absurdity of one Microsoft design patent, for a slider
Microsoft patents a slider, earning EFF's “Stupid Patent of the Month” award — The patent is ammo in a battle between MS Word and Corel's WordPerfect.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Microsoft–Corel patent fight over Word and WordPerfect has produced an unlikely sideshow: EFF handing Microsoft's design patent on a slider its "Stupid Patent of the Month" award. The award matters because it reframes the litigation from a routine cross-licensing dispute into a public argument about whether basic UI elements should be patentable at all.
The story sits inside a wider Microsoft IP campaign: weeks earlier it struck a patent licensing deal with ASUS to pre-install Office on Android devices, and it had just sued Interdigital over "abusive licensing practices." A company positioning itself as both heavy patent holder and patent-abuse critic is exactly why EFF's jab lands.
First-order effects
- Corel gains a rhetorical weapon in the WordPerfect litigation: EFF's absurdity framing lets Corel cast Microsoft's portfolio as overbroad rather than merely aggressive.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's dual role — patent licensor to Android OEMs via deals like ASUS's, and self-styled defender against baseless suits — becomes harder to sustain under activist scrutiny, pressuring it to justify its own filings.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, high-profile design patents on trivial UI become reputational liabilities that push big holders toward defensive postures like the Azure IP Advantage program Microsoft launched a year later, while groups like EFF keep design-patent quality on the reform agenda.
The trend: Software giants' sprawling patent portfolios are shifting from offensive leverage to public-relations exposure as activists like EFF spotlight weak patents mid-litigation.