Patent question

Obtaining a patent is an extremely costly and time-consuming process. Those who spend the money and effort to obtain a patent on intellectual property gain an asset and may control its use. Those who don't obtain patents can count on having to pay Microsoft a licensing fee. Microsoft is a ruthless competitor. If there's an acorn in the forest that hasn't been claimed by some unwary squirrel, Microsoft will scoop it up and own it.

Is that mean patent right included the way of the company doing certain business? I heard that Dell being main computer selling company using Internet is because other had no right to follow how they did it, is that true? Then back on the Microsoft case, are they going to claim loyalty fee on the windows looks that had been mimic on open source operating system?

I don't know the facts. I cannot tell you what may or may not be true.