Microsoft was awarded more than 1,600 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2007, placing it sixth on the list of biggest patent performers, according to IFI Patent Intelligence, which tracks patent awards. IBM, which tried but failed to patent outsourcing last year, won the patent count for the 16th straight year, with more than 3,100 patents.

Microsoft's support of censorship is denounced by a proponent of freedom of speech

Microsoft tried to auction off some patents that they claim relate to Linux. Patent trolls could have bought them. Instead Open Invention Network (OIN) got them. Why would Microsoft wish to get rid of 22 patents that it presumably could sue Linux over? Let's try to imagine what might have happened.

Text-to-Speech Software for Linux: If you've been using Mac OS X or Windows Vista before, you may be a bit disappointed to learn that there's no speech synthesizer or text-to-speech (TTS) application that is installed by default on your Linux distribution. For those of you who don't know what a speech synthesizer is, it's simply a computer program that converts normal language text into speech.

"I celebrated Software Freedom Day this year by giving a speech about the history, features, and costs of software freedom to an audience of about 70 people at the Philadelphia Area Computer Society (PACS). The event was co-sponsored by the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Ubuntu Local Communities.

According to a report published online by the Wall Street Journal, the Open Invention Network (OIN) has announced plans to purchase 22 former Microsoft patents.

OK, up until now I am talking about broad principles and governments. The reason I went off in that direction is to make the point that most reasonable people in free countries do understand, accept and support reasonable limitations on free speech. By the strictest definition of the word these examples are all forms of censorship. Censorship, in and of itself, is not evil.

The Open Invention Network (OIN), a Linux advocacy group today said it is publicly seeking invention data that would effectively overturn three Microsoft patents that the software giant has charged are infringed by some implementations of the Linux kernel.

CMU Sphinx is one of the most popular speech recognition applications for Linux and it can correctly capture words. it also gives the developers the ability to build speech systems, interact with voice and build something unique and useful.