Although building consensus position on patent reform proposals has proved difficult, practically every major stakeholder (except patent attorneys, of course) agrees that the US patent system is broken. As a result, patent problems occasionally generate unexpected alliances between disparate groups at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. In the latest example, a number of organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Apache Software Foundation, have filed an amicus brief that expresses support for Microsoft’s pursuit of revised patent rules.

Microsoft is currently mired in a high-profile patent dispute with i4i, a company that develops collaborative document editing software. The XML editing capabilities in Microsoft’s popular office suite are said to infringe related patents that are held by i4i. The courts have consistently sided with i4i, awarding the company $290 million in damages and threatening Microsoft with an injunction. An appeals court upheld the judgement and the US Patent Office (USPTO) has declined to invalidate the patent.

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Strange bedfellows: EFF, Apache back Microsoft in patent dispute