Wednesday, February 25. 2009

Microsoft Sues TomTom over Navigation/File Management Patent Infringement

Microsoft has tried to engage TomTom in licensing the patents for over a year with no luck, so the time has come to go to court. This is just the third time Microsoft has gone to court to allege patent infringement (the company been on the other end of such suits, however).

There are two separate filing alleging infringement of eight patents, five related to navigation and three to file management. ITWire reports the file management patents are key parts of TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel. The filings are before the U.S. District Court in Washington and the International Trade Commission. The former are aimed at gaining payment for damage, the latter to block future imports of infringing products.

This is not a good time for TomTom to have to go court; the company warned this week it may default on its debt incurred to acquire Tele Atlas. (MarketWatch)

Update 2/26/09: Thursday morning TomTom "rejected" the claims without elaborating. (Dow Jones)

- C|net

Comments

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Hmmm.

MSFT's VirtualEarth [http://maps.live.com] has Navteq under the hood.

Google [http://maps.google.com/] uses TeleAtlas.

Now, if I wanted to mess with my biggest adversary in a particular market, would it be a good idea to drive one of their core suppliers into bankruptcy by filing a predatory lawsuit? I'd think that's a great idea.

So if Tom Tom takes a nose-dive, Google might have to enter as a white knight. Although that's a pain, they can probably do it for loose change. Of course, it's complicated to acquire something that's embroiled in a lawsuit, particularly if the third party decides to be, shall we say, "difficult" about the sale.

Nice move, Redmond.

#1 Archie Belaney on 2009-02-25 19:06 (Reply)

If anyone is interested in knowing the patents that Microsoft is asserting as having been infringed by TomTom, as well as links to the patents, you can find them in my most recent blog at Exploring Local - http://blog.telemapics.com .

#2 Mike Dobson (Link) on 2009-02-25 21:47 (Reply)

Thanks Mike!

Bad days for Tom Tom...

#3 Patent Infringement (Link) on 2009-05-11 23:33 (Reply)

I believe this was settled out of court some time ago.

#4 Archie Belaney on 2009-05-12 13:35 (Reply)

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In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Archie Belaney on 2009-02-25 19:06 #2: Mike Dobson on 2009-02-25 21:47 #3: Patent Infringement on 2009-05-11 23:33 #4: Archie Belaney on 2009-05-12 13:35
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