Microsoft licenses Finjan security patents

#123 The deal gives Microsoft a minority share in the privately held, San Jose, Calif.-based company. It enables the software giant to use ideas developed by Finjan in future products and "covers a broad range of patents that Finjan has developed and acquired in the last nine years in the security space". Financial details of the deal are not being disclosed.

Microsoft has been pushing into the security arena over the past couple years. The company has acquired antivirus and anti-spyware technology and is working on bringing products to market. Also, Microsoft has said security is now top priority when developing its other products. The technology Microsoft has licensed covers ways to monitor Internet traffic and block malicious code based on security policies. The behavior-based system aims to defend corporate networks against viruses and spyware even if the malicious programs are completely new and have never been seen before.

What makes this interesting is that Microsoft has licensed only ideas covered by the patents, but not actual technology such as software code. Another interesting fact is that one of the other private investors in Finjan is Cisco Systems.