(By Portuno) A look at only IBM, Adobe and Microsoft (I'm leaving out others to make the view more simplified) over the past three year period shows two views:

1) IBM and Adobe had secret development campaigns over a number of years which were made public over three years ago.

AIR was developed by Adobe after they acquired Macromedia and retired "Central", ultimately replacing it with "Apollo" - AIR'S previous codename. The "new technology
" bears a strong resemblance to the kind of infrastructure needed (from what was to become 7076521 in 2006) to build the Apollo distributed smartcard system which VCSY built two years before the Macromedia buyout.

Two aspects of DB2 were developed by IBM over a top secret 5 year period culminating in codename "Viper" (3Q 2005), which description matches the kinds of claims in 7076521 and "Venom" 6826744 (4Q 2006).

Both IBM and Adobe announced the product campaigns in 2005.

2) In contrast, Microsoft kept their developments secret far into 2008 and took much market abuse for it. What Vista should have been was cut in 2006, the software being "rewritten" in spring 2006 for "security" reasons. Microsoft did not begin introducting their web-based products until August 2008 - after they settled with VCSY July 25, 2008.

What is notable about the history is 1) Microsoft is the only company VCSY has sued for infringement... and Microsoft settled the day before the Markman hearing and 2) VCSY has not sued the most obvious "infringers" namely IBM and Adobe.

Between the two cases, in my opinion, IBM and Adobe would be easy lawsuit targets as their actions are easily seen in public and imply a knowledge based on a number of attachments and inferences; while Microsoft was a difficult lawsuit as Microsoft kept their "best" product versions private with select clients and partners. The fact Sharepoint was added as a "last minute" target on top of the existing complaint against .Net, indicates Microsoft managed to keep infringement in Sharepoint out of sight. Either that or Niro was holding the Sharepoint complaint in reserve to up the pressures on the MSFT legal team - either way the Sharepoint complaint seems to have pushed Microsoft over the edge.

"How long before we see something"?

Based on the new accounting measures listed in the most recent filing: when a fair market value (VSOFE) is assessed for the kinds of products the two patents may be used to developed.

It's one thing to assess a value to products you produce and sell (which VCSY has). It's quite another to assess a value to the products built by those using your patent claims. The first may be done quickly. The second case must rely on the speed of the producing company, the market and legal hindrances.

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks...