Does Microsoft’s ‘Sudo Patent’ Protect User Account Control?

Has Microsoft gone one step closer to patenting the words “May I?” That’s been the general sentiment about the granting of Microsoft’s “Rights elevator” patent — which would cover User Account Control (“UAC”) in Vista and Windows 7, but possibly also the generic sudo command in Unix.

The exact wording in the abstract of the patent (#7,617,530) seems to describe UAC to a T:

Systems and/or methods are described that enable a user to elevate his or her rights. In one embodiment, these systems and/or methods present a user interface identifying an account having a right to permit a task in response to the task being prohibited based on a user’s current account not having that right…

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