Microsoft enters Android-Motorola lawsuit
Everyone and their other brother is now involved in the suits involving Motorola and the Android smartphone operating system. Microsoft is the latest to join, claiming that Android violated 9 of their patents.
When Microsoft waded into this particular legal battle, they did so with both feet. They served complaints to the International Trade Commission and in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, saying in essence that Motorola’s use of Google’s Android smartphone operating system violates their intellectual property rights, essentially illegally using Microsoft tools needed for synchronizing e-mail and contacts, scheduling meetings and altering software to changes in battery power and network signal strength, according to a statement, according to a story in the New York Times.
Horacio Gutierrez, a deputy general counsel at Microsoft, said of the suit “We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market. Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones.” There was no reply as yet from the sue-ee, Motorola, who says that they have not yet seen a copy of the complaint.
This is getting to be a very large bandwagon, with Google’s Android OS right in the heart of it. First in line was a suit from Apple vs. HTC, saying that their implementation of Android went counter to a number of patents held by Apple. Oracle (inventor and owner of Java technology) later sued Google directly, saying that the uses that Google made of Java in Android was essentially theft of Oracle’s technology. On similar fronts, everyone that manufactures a smartphone or a chip that goes into one is suing everyone else in that arena. All of this could take years to sort out, at the rate companies are still suing other companies, so don’t hold your breath for answers.
