The fact that Microsoft just issued a patents lawsuit ultimatum to Motorola and to Barnes and Noble today comes as little surprise: Microsoft seems to sue almost as often and extensively as Apple does. What also isn’t surprising is that neither recipient has backed down but offered their own

“No way, Jose”

responses and presented counter-suing as an option. Apparently, more manufacturers and businesses are not taking patent violation notifications sitting down. Motorola, Samsung, HTC, LG, Google, Sony and virtually every other mobile phone or tablet manufacturer, as well as app sponsors and developers, have paused long and hard before signing license agreements, whereas in the past, the majority of entities ducked in embarrassment in being caught and automatically reached for the agreement pen.

LG was one such entity that did sign the license agreement. Nokia, on the other hand, reached a contractual arrangement with Microsoft last year that landed more than US$1 billion in Nokia’s coffers – and Microsoft still earns license fees for every Windows phone that Nokia manufactures.

Microsoft is also suing various mobile phone makers and tablet makers for patent violations when there is only the option to sync the devices with a Windows-based computer’s operating system. You see, in a nut shell, the developers had to mention in their programming some part of the Windows OS programming to make the sync possible.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-book reader or the Nook tablet can take documents stored on a Windows PC and eventually load it onto the reader. That direct or indirect link, says Microsoft, requires Windows programming, and for every device that links, a fee must be paid. B&N basically laughed.

Motorola has a slightly different stance in its history: It has both sued and been sued by Microsoft. (Apple, too, but this isn’t about Apple.) Odds are fair that Motorola will opt for the counter-suit choice before signing and only then if directed by a court order at the outcome of a lawsuit.

Is all that money Microsoft is spending on lawyers and litigation worthwhile? Perhaps not in the short term, but they win enough suits and gain enough licensing agreements that currently they receive royalty funds on 70 percent of all the Android devices sold in the world today. And that doesn’t include the WP7 and/or WP8 license fees they do or will gain from Nokia and other WP phone manufacturers.

Those statistics tell a sad tale, don’t they? It pays more to sue at the drop of a button icon than it does to sit down together like civilised people.