Patent Law

Drumming

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

Microsoft today filed patent infringement suits against TomTom, Amsterdam-based maker of vehicle navigation GPS systems, both in Washington district court, and the ITC. Eight patents are asserted, five on navigation, three on file management. Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez claimed that Microsoft has been trying to engage TomTom in licensing talks for over a year.

With a portfolio of over 10,000 patents, this is only the third patent suit Microsoft has filed. In 2006, Belkin was belted with a suit, and settled. Last year Taiwanese mouse maker Primax was ratted out before settling.

Microsoft began navigating licenses to its GPS portfolio in 2003. Pioneer, Alpine and Kenwood are licensees.

TomTom uses a Linux-based system. The open-source crowd are jittery that this is but the first case against Linux vendors.

Last year, Microsoft honcho Steve Ballmer (pictured) suffered Tourette's Syndrome in repeatedly accusing Linux of infringing 235 Microsoft patents, that number culled from years of research by Microsoft.

Microsoft is regularly sued for patent infringement, often having 30 or more cases against it at any one time.

A current vexation for Microsoft is a patent suit against its new Ribbon user interface, used in Office 2007, included in its upcoming Windows 7, and increasingly adopted by others. Something of a user interface standard in the making. In hopes of delay and ultimate derailment, Microsoft hornswoggled an Eastern District of Texas judge to transfer the case to Oregon, where it was docketed today. Denial is the longest river.

Microsoft has made no attempt engaging in settlement talks in this case, nor is it expected to. While Microsoft expects others to bow before it for patent infringement, paying any "patent tax," as it calls it, is anathema. When not giving lip over its own patents, Microsoft pays lip service to respect for intellectual property. Microsoft is a member of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, a lobbyist for gutting patent protection in this country.

In other Ribbon patent news, Autodesk, maker of AutoCAD, was sued today in Oregon, over the same patent Microsoft is struggling against: 7,363,592.

Microsoft has already provided the '592 patent owner with its invalidity contentions. In doing so, Microsoft showed itself not to be a fan of country music singer Kenny Rogers. Mr. Rogers, using a poker analogy, once warbled: "know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em."

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).