The tech world's latest legal case is between two very big companies. IBM, with its enormous cache of patents, has filed suit against Amazan.com over its use of five patents that IBM claims as their own:

• US 5,796,967 - Presenting Applications in an Interactive Service.
• US 5,442,771 - Storing Data in an Interactive Network.
• US 7,072,849 - Presenting Advertising in an Interactive Service.
• US 5,446,891 - Adjusting Hypertext Links with Weighted User Goals and Activities.
• US 5,319,542 - Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalogue.

As the article points out though, some of these patents have been around for some time. So there's still some question as to wether they'll hold up in court or not.

"The company claims that it has attempted to negotiate with Amazon for several years over the issue, but that the retailer has "shown no willingness to have meaningful discussions." "When someone takes our property, without our permission through a license, we have no option but to protect it through every means available to us," said John Kelly, IBM's Senior VP for Technology and Intellectual Property."