This is one of the first cloud hosting lawsuits that I know about that has become very huge in the news.  We all know that cloud hosting is becoming important to all the companies around the world.  In the case of Salesforce.com and Microsoft… the battle is on.

Salesforce.com is using David Boies as counsel for its patent-infringement lawsuit against its the huge competitor. Salesforce’s lawsuit is seen by many as a response to Microsoft’s own intellectual property suit, filed in May, against the cloud-based software company. One analyst also sees the brewing legal battle as a fight for the future of the cloud, with Microsoft’s Azure on one side and Salesforce’s cloud-based productivity offerings on the other. Salesforce alleges that Microsoft violated five of its patents.

The five Salesforce patents at issue include, “Dynamic Multi-Level Cache Manager,” “Method and System for Handling Errors in a Distributed Computer System,” “Work Sharing and Communicating in a Web Site System,” “Java Object Cache Server for Databases,” and “Apparatus and Methods for Provisioning Services.” All were issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office between 2004 and 2007.

“Microsoft’s continuing acts of infringement have caused and are causing irreparable harm to Salesforce.com, for which Salesforce.com has no adequate remedy at law,” read the filing. “The hardships that would be imposed by an injunction are less than those faced by Salesforce.com should an injunction not issue.”

“The stakes are getting bigger and bigger,” Ray Wang, an analyst with the Altimeter Group, said in a June 28 interview with eWEEK. “In the battle for the cloud, the two leaders are going to be Salesforce and Microsoft. Microsoft’s Azure is the .NET side of the war, while Salesforce is the Java side. So you’re going to have drama.” Azure is Microsoft’s cloud-based development platform.