Seems almost everyone in the smartphone industry is either facing a lawsuit or is suing someone else. The latest company to join the patent war is Microsoft. The software giant has reportedly approached International Trade Commission ( ITC) to request that Motorola imports be banned from the US.
The complaint refers to Motorola’s following six handsets:
- Motorola Droid 2
- Motorola Droid X
- Motorola Cliq XT
- Motorola Devour
- Motorola Backflip
- Motorola Charm
The Redmond-based company is claiming that these handsets infringe on seven of its patents. These patents relate to calendars and contacts, email sync, scheduling, and mechanisms used to inform applications of changes in signal strength and battery power. Microsoft terms these features ‘essential to the smartphone user experience.’
Microsoft’s lawsuit follows Google’s acquisition of Motorola’s mobile devices division for $12.5 billion. Analysts believe that the patents held by Motorola Mobility will help Google fend off litigation targeting its Android mobile platform. Among Motorola Mobility’s more than 17,000 patents, a group of 18 may prove most useful in Google Inc’s effort to fend off litigation.
Google has been sued twice by rivals over Android — Oracle Corp and Skyhook Wireless Inc. The company, however, has so far not led a patent-infringement case against another company.