Microsoft sues Motorola over Google Android

Life

4 October 2010

Microsoft has filed patent infringement complaints against Motorola and its Android phones in the International Trade Commission and US federal court, indicating that the software giant may hope to use its strong patent position as one way to set its mobile software apart from the competition.

Microsoft said that Motorola’s Android phones infringe 9 patents, including some that would appear to threaten most smartphone platforms.

The patents appear to include some related to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which syncs e-mail, calendar and contacts between a mobile phone and a software-based computer program, according to a blog post written by Horacio Gutierrez, general counsel at Microsoft.

Other patents involve technology that displays signal strength and battery power on phones.

While Google licenses Microsoft’s ActiveSync for use in Android, Microsoft may plan to argue that handset makers that add their own technologies to Android also need a licence for ActiveSync, said Chris Hazelton, an analyst with The 451 Group. Motorola does add its own enhancements to Android phones.

“Motorola, of the major Android supporters, is the only one that doesn’t license ActiveSync themselves,” Hazelton said. HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Dell and others all license ActiveSync, he said.

Motorola may have been unwilling to license ActiveSync because it can be expensive, Hazelton said. “This is not a small amount of money. We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars.” Motorola, which is about to split up into several companies, has been struggling over the past few years.

Research firm Gartner has predicted that Android will become the second-largest smartphone platform by 2012, behind only Symbian.

“That scares the traditional players who have invested in this market for years,” Hazelton said. “That is compelling Microsoft to say, ‘How do we combat this? We’ll make it costly and risky to people who are considering going with Android.'”

Microsoft said it was acting to protect its intellectual property investments, and noted that Nokia and other vendors have also filed lawsuits over smartphone technologies. Microsoft has “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”, the company said.

The suits shouldn’t come as a surprise. Earlier this year, HTC announced it had licensed Microsoft patents relevant to its Android phones. The companies did not disclose what kinds of technologies the patents covered. At the time, Microsoft said it was in discussions with other phone makers using Android.

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