Microsoft and Salesforce settle their patent infringement scuffle

The patent infringement cases between Microsoft and Salesforce in both the U.S. District Courts of the Western District of Washington and in Delaware have been settled, Microsoft announced today.

Last May, Microsoft sued CRM software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement, and Salesforce followed with its own countersuit a month later, saying Microsoft's .NET platform and SharePoint products violated five Salesforce patents.

The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but the parties have indicated that Salesforce is compensating Microsoft based on the strength of its operating system, cloud service, and customer relationship management software patent portfolio.

"We are pleased to reach this agreement with Salesforce.com to put an end to the litigation between our two companies," Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of IP and Licensing at Microsoft said in a statement today. "Microsoft's patent portfolio is the strongest in the software industry and is the result of decades of software innovation.  Today's agreement is an example of how companies can compete vigorously in the marketplace while respecting each other's intellectual property rights."

Salesforce has not yet made a statement regarding the settlement.