[RexRollman]

IBM has a history of using patents to extort money:

http://www.forbes.com/asap/2002/0624/044.html

[dredmorbius]

To the tune, if memory serves, of about $1b a year in the late 1990s. Though that number is challenged (estimated at closer to $135m/year): http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=9be3f156-79b1...