Tech Patents Soar in Value – The Wall Street Journal.

I thought you would be interested in the following story on WSJ.com.

Tech Patents Soar in Value

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304587704577334122637021442.html

The technology patent arms race is heating up—again.

Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT +0.65%agreement to spend nearly $1.1 billion buying and licensing about 1,100 patents covering some of the Internet’s basic plumbing from AOL Inc. AOL +1.06%spotlights the ongoing boom in spending among tech titans for what amounts to the Internet era’s nuclear deterrence.

“This has been a gradual evolution of patents from simple legal assets to strategic financial assets,” said Mark Radcliffe, a partner at law firm DLA Piper who specializes in intellectual property.