A patent infringement lawsuit against Salesforce.com by Microsoft has been settled, Microsoft announced. The terms of the deal and compensation amounts were not revealed, but the two companies will gain access to each others' portfolio of patents and Salesforce will have coverage for server infrastructure, products and services patent

ed by Microsoft.

In May, Microsoft sued Salesforce, claiming that the company had committed patent infringement on nine of Microsoft's patents. These included patents on embedded menu systems for web pages, remote software access, access to data over networks, and toolbar stacking.

In June, Salesforce followed Microsoft's lead with its own suit against Microsoft. Salesforce alleged that Microsoft had committed patent infringement on give patents, including ones related to the .Net platform and Windows Server.

Jane Hynes, vice president of corporate communication for Salesforce.com, released a statement saying that "Salesforce.com is pleased to put this litigation behind us."

Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing, Horacio Gutierrez, said in a statement that "Today's agreement is an example of how companies can compete vigorously in the marketplace while respecting each other's intellectual property rights.