Lawsuits abound between smart phone software and hardware manufacturers
Microsoft announced today that is suing Motorola for purportedly infringing upon nine patents in order to develop Motorola’s Android smartphones.
Microsoft issued a statement from corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing Horacio Gutierrez, which stated that the actual patents are related “to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.”
“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,” it went on.
Motorola has claimed that is has yet to receive the lawsuit. “Motorola has a leading intellectual property portfolio, one of the strongest in the industry. The company will vigorously defend itself in this matter,” it said.
The suits emphasize the extreme competition between software companies and device manufacturers within the exploding smartphone marketplace.
The software company’s actions accompany comparable legal attacks over supposed smartphone patent infringements.
Earlier in the week, Apple filed a suit against Nokia in Britain, continuing a back and forth legal struggle between the organizations relating to smartphone software.
Last March, Apple Inc. sued Taiwan-based HTC, the maker of Android phones like the HTC Hero as well as Google’s Nexus One (which is no longer available), claiming that it had infringed on 20 Apple patents associated with their iPhone user interface.
