Microsoft 'Invents' Game-Over Software Licensing

theodp writes: Microsoft's Open Value Subscription offering didn't get the warmest reception from Slashdot fans. Nor did the follow-up announcement of Albany, a planned MS-Office Subscription Service. Now comes word from the USPTO that Microsoft feels it deserves a patent for its 'invention' of 'Time-Based Licensing', which aims to make the traditional pay-once perpetual license model a thing of the past. Hey, if your customers were waiting nine years between OS upgrades, you'd try touting a three-year lease with a balloon buy-out payment, too!