Microsoft files suit against Motorola over Android

You can’t be big in the tech world without attracting lawsuits - and Android is getting really big. The latest in who-sued-who news is that Microsoft filed a suit against Motorola over Android used in their phones, an OS which Microsoft’s believes violates some of its patents.

This isn’t the first legal hit against Android - Apple sued HTC over several phones, some of which used Android and some - Windows Mobile. Back then Microsoft made a licensing agreement with HTC over their Android phones (and whatever patents they were using).

Now it’s Motorola’s turn - here’s a quote from Microsoft, which describes what the lawsuit is about.

“Microsoft filed an action today in the International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against Motorola, Inc. for infringement of nine Microsoft patents by Motorola’s Android-based smartphones. The patents at issue relate 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.”

Syncing email, calendar and contacts is something even a lot of smartphones can do - let alone advanced OSes like Android. But that’s the world of patent law for you. It’s also a bit strange that it’s the device manufacturer that gets sued, not whoever created the infringing OS.

For more info on Microsoft’s motivations you can read this blog post by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President.

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