Microsoft, on March 21, filed a lawsuit against US-based Barnes & Noble for violating its patents with the Android operating system that the company adopted for its e-book reader device, while the e-book reader vendor's two OEM partners Taiwan-based Inventec and Foxconn International Holdings were also accused. In response, Inventec declined to comment on the lawsuit, while Foxconn said that the company is still looking into the lawsuit.
Market watchers pointed out that the lawsuit is likely a strategy for Microsoft to delay its competitors' product launch schedule, and since Foxconn and Microsoft have already been negotiating about the patent infringement for more than one year without reaching an agreement, it indicates that Foxconn is confident it will not be hit hard by a Microsoft suit.
Microsoft filed legal action with the International Trade Commission and the US District Court of the Western District of Washington against Barnes & Noble, and its device manufacturers, Foxconn International Holdings and Inventec, for patent infringement by their Android-based e-reader and tablet devices that are marketed under the Barnes & Noble brand.
"The Android platform infringes a number of Microsoft's patents, and companies manufacturing and shipping Android devices must respect our intellectual property rights. To facilitate that we have established an industry-wide patent licensing program for Android device manufacturers," said Horacio Gutierrez, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing. "HTC, a market leader in Android smartphones, has taken a license under this program. We have tried for over a year to reach licensing agreements with Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec. Their refusals to take licenses leave us no choice but to bring legal action to defend our innovations and fulfill our responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year to bring great software products and services to market," he added.
The patents at issue cover a range of functionality embodied in Android devices that are essential to the user experience, including: natural ways of interacting with devices by tabbing through various screens to find the information they need; surfing the Web more quickly, and interacting with documents and e-books.
Google also responded that a lawsuit over patent infringement will hinder innovations and despite that Google is not one of the accused, the company will stand by its Android platform and provide support to its partners.