Microsoft today filed a patent infringement suit against TomTom, the Amsterdam-based maker of portable GPS systems for in-car navigation, after more than a year of trying to reach a licensing arrangement, the company said. A Microsoft spokeswoman described the infringed patents as covering "inventions that enable a vehicle computer system to run multiple applications, provide more natural driving directions, integrate other devices, and access the Internet."

[Update, 6:10 a.m. Thursday: A TomTom spokesman told Reuters, "We reject the claim and will vigorously defend ourselves."]

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent have settled six outstanding lawsuits over patents covering video and communications. Alcatel sued Microsoft for infringement of its patents in November 2006. Microsoft is still pursuing appeal of a $368 million verdict that Alcatel won this summer.

There's no such thing as Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Blue Edition, or anything marketed by Microsoft as a "Blue Edition." But software pirates still managed to sell copies of the counterfeit software for $9.95, burned onto blue discs and backed by a plausible-sounding story of their provenance. Today, Microsoft announced a wave of lawsuits targeting these software pirates and others involved in selling fakes through online auction sites.

Microsoft received 1,649 U.S. patents in 2007, the most by far of any software company, according to the Patents Scorecard produced by IEEE Spectrum and released this week.