4:18 PM
Kakrona Chan
Welcome to the latest episode of Patent Lawsuit Theater! In this edition, we find Microsoft suing former partner Motorola over, what else, patent infringement in the area of smartphones.
Microsoft filed an action with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against Motorola, Inc. Microsoft claims that Motorola has violated nine of its patents in its Android-based smartphones, which include the Droid, Droid X and Droid 2.
Microsoft claims that Motorola’s Android enhancements, including the areas of “synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power,” violate patents held by Microsoft.
Microsoft claims that Motorola’s Android enhancements, including the areas of “synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power,” violate patents held by Microsoft.
Earlier this year, Microsoft entered into a licensing agreement with HTC. Under that agreement, HTC pays Microsoft royalties for use of parts of its patent portfolio in HTC’s Android implementations. Microsoft and HTC have never made public what patents are covered under that agreement, so it’s uncertain if there is any overlap between that arrangement and the current Motorola lawsuit.
On its TechNet policy blog, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez attempts to humanize the lawsuit and better frame its context.
Of course, Microsoft isn’t the only company that is filing Android-related lawsuits. Oracle filed suit against Google back in August, claiming that Android and the Android SDK violate its Java-related intellectual property. In March, Apple sued HTC over its Android-specific Sense implementations and features.
[via mashable]
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