Microsoft filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Western Washington against Salesforce.com for patent infringement. The complaint alleges Salesforce.com violated the nine patents including:

• 7,251,653: Method and system for mapping between logical data and physical data
  
• 5,742,768: System and method for providing and displaying a web page having an embedded menu
  
• 5,644,737: Method and system for stacking toolbars in a computer display
  
• 6,263,352: Automated web site creation using template driven generation of active server page applications
  
• 6,542,164: Timing and velocity control for displaying graphical information
  
• 5,845,077: Method and system for identifying and obtaining computer software from a remote computer
  
• 5,941,947: System and method for controlling access to data entities in a computer network

So be careful how you conduct data mapping and design software or you too could be in for a surprise!

Both companies are investing heavily in building competing platforms for cloud computing — Force.com from Salesforce.com and Microsoft's Azure.