Ah the every increasing would of patent infringement wars continue with the latest lawsuit coming from Microsoft who is apparently seeking a ban on the import of Motorola Android bases smartphones in the United States due to Microsoft claiming Motorola Mobility infringes on 7 patents they hold relating to Android.
According to an article over on Slash Gear by way of Bloomberg, this latest move by Microsoft in the wake of Google acquiring Motorola Mobility, covers such devices as The Motorola Droid 2, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Backflip, Motorola Devour, Motorola Charm and the Motorola Cliq XT.
Apparently the trial began on the 22nd of this month before the US ITC in Washington, and Microsoft’s corporate VP and general counsel for litigation, David Howard said in an email, “We have a responsibility to our employees, customers, partners and shareholders to safeguard our intellectual property. Motorola is infringing our patents and we are confident that the ITC will rule in our favor.”
Word is the infringed patents according to Microsoft are to do with displaying battery charge level and synchronised email.
Naturally Motorola Mobility is hitting back at Microsoft, with Motorola Mobility spokesperson, Jennifer Erickson stating in an email, “We have also brought legal actions of our own in the U.S. and in Europe to address Microsoft’s large scale of infringement of Motorola Mobility’s patents.”
And thus the patent disputes continue, drawing more into the Android argument, which seems to me that most are basically just after striking out at Android to try and reduce the competition in the mobile area.
Just imagine if all these ban requests where to be granted, there wouldn’t be much choice for the consumer when it comes to smartphones and tablets would there. Why everyone can’t simply come to some agreement, put a halt to all this lawsuit and banning nonsense and just get on with delivering new devices to the mobile space is beyond me.
Still that’s big business for you, if you can’t beat them then try to get them banned seems to be the rule of the industry these days.