Microsoft has said it has no immediate plans to sue after alleging patent infringements by open-source vendors.

In an official statement emailed to ZDNet UK, Microsoft confirmed that it would not litigate for now.

"If we wanted to go down that road we could have done that three years ago," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "Rather than litigate, Microsoft has spent the last three years building an intellectual property bridge that works for all parties–including open source–and the customer response has been tremendously positive. Our focus is on continuing to build bridges."

In their third effort to enact a federal law targeting spyware, members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved criminal penalties aimed at anyone implanting certain types of malicious software on computers.

The bill, called the Internet Spyware Prevention Act, or I-Spy for short, punishes anyone who intentionally causes software "to be copied onto" a computer–and damages it or steals personal information–with fines and up to five years in prison.

Stampede Technologies announced the release of new client software that accelerates enterprise users with Windows Mobile and Linux devices. The release of this new client software strengthens Stampede’s vision of accelerating all enterprise applications for all users. A first in the industry, this acceleration technology complements Stampede’s innovative client technology for Win32 Desktops and Laptops that has been deployed on tens of thousands of desktops worldwide. This new capability is now available as a standard feature with the Stampede Application Acceleration Series Release 2 solutions.

Many professionals know that providing excellent service is one sure-fire way to run a successful (and profitable) business. Another contributing factor is having the ability to properly track time and expenses–It’s something that needs to be done, but in a way that doesn’t detract from the time spent servicing the client.

That’s where BillRate fits in. It lets users harness the power of their Windows Mobile Pocket PC-based smartphone or handheld device to record time, expenses and mileage while on the go. BillRate makes it easy to link time, expense and mileage entries to a particular project and then allows organizing, filtering and sorting the data in a number of ways.

Additionally, when the Pocket PC and the Windows Desktop edition are used together, data is synchronized between the two, allowing further analysis and easy exporting to Excel, XML, and other data formats.

Resco announced availability of Resco CompactChart .NET, the charting control optimized for .NET Compact Framework 2.0, integrated with the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Resco CompactChart .NET supports five chart types: Pie, Bar, Line, Doughnut and Area. The control has a comprehensive Visual Studio Designer support and its run-time layout is optimized for small displays of mobile devices, using features such as tap-and-hold tooltips to save space on mobile forms.

Symantec’s decision to file lawsuits against eight companies it accuses of selling pirated software was the latest move in the industry’s continuing struggle against counterfeit products.

That it was a top-tier security software provider also highlights the dangers to users who install pirated security products onto their systems.

The eight separate lawsuits, filed over the past several months in U.S. District Court in California and announced May 16, seek more than $55 million in damages from the companies, which include several in California, as well as others in New York, Texas, Florida and Canada.

Lenovo and IBM announced the expansion of their global alliance to develop and deliver industry specific, integrated technology solutions for enterprises, small and mid-market businesses and individuals. The agreement aligns Lenovo’s expertise in building the best engineered personal computers with IBM’s extensive IT services and technology capabilities. Under the terms of the alliance, Lenovo and IBM Global Services will jointly deliver end-to-end technology solutions that meet the business needs of clients in industries such as healthcare, financial services, education, retail and government.

IBM unveiled an intrusion prevention appliance that is designed to transmit and protect network traffic at core network speeds. The new Proventia Network Intrusion Prevention System GX6116 supports throughput of up to fifteen gigabits per second with preemptive protection for up to six Gbps of network traffic. The appliance is designed to operate at the network core and meet the needs of large enterprise or carrier deployments. By adding the Proventia Network IPS GX6116 to its Internet Security Systems product line, IBM offers comprehensive, ahead-of-the-threat protection for the various layers of an enterprise network.

IBM announced new self-learning content classification software developed to automatically categorize large volumes of enterprise information, making it easier to find, access and use.

IBM’s content classification software offerings were designed to help organizations cost-effectively understand what content exists, whether it is important, and how it should be handled. The new software also can automatically classify vast amounts of previously unmanaged content so it can be easily retrieved and used for business purposes.

The new IBM Classification Module for OmniFind Discovery Edition and IBM Classification Module for IBM FileNet P8 provide a complete platform for managing all types of classification for content archiving, compliance solutions, email management, content centric business process management solutions and taxonomy management, as well as in applications for case resolution, contact center and online support offerings. IBM estimates that automating these time-consuming manual tasks can yield up to a 40 percent time savings on content classification, records management and information retrieval tasks.

Thousands of IBM’s customers and Business Partners are gathered this week for IBM IMPACT 2007, IBM’s inaugural worldwide customer event focused on advancing the $160 billion opportunity for SOA (service oriented architecture) through education and demonstrable business results. More than 4,500 IBM customers have modeled their businesses around SOA, a business strategy that helps a company reuse existing technology to more closely align it with business goals, helping to result in greater efficiencies, cost savings and productivity.

In addition to addressing the serious SOA IT skills shortage, IBM is also announcing new software and services at IMPACT. Further, more than 100 IBM customers including Cardinal Health, Wachovia and Royal Caribbean will share experiences on how an SOA strategy has made an impact on their businesses to be more innovative, flexible and efficient. The week-long event also features more than 400 sessions targeted to four key audiences: business leaders, information technology executives, technical communities and the roles that intersect business and IT.