In current financial year a lot of patent litigations have been filed by one or the other company on their rivals. Today with this article, I tend to bring up a patent rivalry that very hot cake in the market nowadays. This is a patent war going on between Google’s Motorola Mobility and Microsoft Corp. Four judgments have been seen in the financial year 2012 in Germany, out of which three have been in favor of Microsoft Corp. and one in the favor of Google.
The latest judgment passed out by a court in Germany accused Google of infringing Microsoft Corp. US patent 6,359,572(Dynamic keyboard) which is related to the way mobile devices handle input commands from users. This is the third win for Microsoft Corp. in the court of Germany. Before this Microsoft won two litigations from Google, out of which one was a patent which allows long text messages to be divided into parts and then reassembled by receiving handsets
[EP1304891 (A2)] and another was a patent which is used as an appointment scheduling tool.
Its not like Google is only losing in this battle, they also won a litigation in early May which resulted in the recall and destruction of Xbox 360 games consoles and Windows 7 system software in Germany. A judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) subsequently recommended there should also be a Xbox import and sales ban in the US. However, another Seattle judge has ordered Google to hold off from enforcing any such bans until it ruled on a related complaint.
Third victory for Microsoft in 2012
With the win over Google, Microsoft marks the third lawsuit win against Google, and this win to Microsoft means that Google will have to modify its Android operating system or pay Microsoft a license fee to use the technology in devices sold in Germany.
Google may face sales restrictions on its products in Germany unless it makes significant changes to its Android operating system.
Microsoft’s deputy general counsel David Howard said that the firm would continue to enforce injunctions against Motorola products in Germany and hope Motorola will join other Android device makers by taking a license to Microsoft’s patented inventions.
Samsung, HTC and others pay a license to use the technology, but Motorola had resisted.
“We’re pleased this decision builds on previous rulings in Germany that have already found Motorola is broadly infringing Microsoft’s intellectual property,” Howard added.
According to the report, Google said in a statement that the company is ‘waiting for the written decision and are evaluating options, including an appeal.
When Apple alleged that Motorola had copied its bounceback list feature, Google gave software update to all Motorola devices that run on Android – but the technology in this case relates to an underlying feature of Android rather than a visual flourish. Therefore, it would be harder for Google to issue a software update to work around the issue rather than to agree to pay a license.
