Microsoft gets 10,000th Patent

Microsoft on Tuesday said it has just recorded its 10,000th U.S. patent, which is related to technology used in its Surface computing platform. The U.S. Patent No. 7,479,950 covers a new technology that lets users to place objects on the computer’s tablelike display and have them associated with the data or media stored on the computer’s hard drive.

For example, a group of photos from a particular vacation could be associated with a souvenir from the trip. Placing the souvenir on a Microsoft Surface computer might initiate …