The CRM world received a bit of a shake-up last week as Microsoft sued customer relationship management SaaS software pioneer Salesforce.com for patent infringement, saying the SaaS-only vendor was trespassing on nine of Microsoft’s technology patents.
Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit that Microsoft has “a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard [its] investment, and therefore cannot stand idly by when others infringe our IP rights.”
The suit seeks an injunction against Salesforce.com as well as unspecified damages, according to reports.
In remarks at an industry event this week, Mark Benioff, Salesforce’s often outspoken CEO, likened Microsoft to a “patent troll,” according to a report by IDG news service.