Cyanogen said to be hoovering up cash, but NOT from Microsoft

The MS software patents have nothing to do with proprietary or open source code in Android. What they have to do with is a claimed method of doing something in the (illegal, if the law was applied correctly) patent that they claim a particular device or another infringes on. MS's attempts and Android extortion are in order to offset the fact that they have been a bust in the the mobile market since Windows CE.

Open source doesn't act as a bar to any of their (fallacious) claims. The only reasons that they don't go after open source companies directly is that they run the risk of having their software patents invalidated, which would hurt the bottom line in their shakedown attempts. If MS went after an open source company directly (i.e.: Red Hat, IBM, or say,... Intel's open source efforts) they would circle the wagons, probably implicating others in the Open Invention Network (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/) to bring their patents to bear, and it would be an all out patent Armageddon.

What MS wants is to "quietly" use their patents to shake down competing software efforts that OEMs may be using, in order to hedge the hemorrhaging they experience by failing to capture a given market (or to lose one). If they were to open up Pandora's box, by initiating an all out patent war, they would run the risk of A) having their particular patents being invalidated, and/or B) forcing either the courts or the legislature have to draw a fine line and put the nail in the coffin of software patents altogether. So,... They continue skirt around the issue, employ mafia shake down tactics, and go after relatively easy prey (companies that can't afford to fight them, or companies that can't afford not to do business with them).