This strikes me as a win-win-win situation.

Either

1. Microsoft get severely stung and IE gets crippled by a patent claim, or
   
   
2. Microsoft throw their weight behind a civil disobedience which discredits software patents (and sets some legal precedent against them), or
   
   
3. as Zeldman says about Microsoft's attempt to interupt the transparent access to plug-ins ... Even these clumsy, expensive, painfully disruptive approaches might not satisfy the patent holder. If they do not, then where rich media is concerned, the web could soon look like 1993 all over again.
   

Hmmm. Which would I prefer ... destruction of software patents, IE or Flash ... trrrricky!