Patent wars on – Microsoft sues Android retailers

Berlin, March 25th 2011 — This week Microsoft sued the retailers Barnes&Noble, Foxconn and Inventec for distributing devices using the Android platform. The Android is a Linux derivate from Google. It is the most recent lawsuit in a battle of dominance on the tablet and smartphone market.

“What a desperate sales argument to sue retailers which use a competing platform. It’s ‘Take our platform or get sued’. Patent war is on. I am inspired by products like Openmoko and Android, not libel and lawsuits.”, finds FFII vice president Rene Mages.

“We predicted years ago that Microsoft would go after Linux challengers with software patents”, explains FFII president Benjamin Henrion. “It shows how patents stifle innovation”.

The FFII has a track record of making contructive proposals for reforming the patent system to eliminate software patent threats for developers.

Patents

  • U.S. Patent 5,778,372 “Remote retrieval and display management of electronic document with incorporated images”
  • U.S. Patent 6,339,780 “Loading status in a hypermedia browser having a limited available display area”
  • U.S. Patent 5,889,522 “System provided child window controls”
  • U.S. Patent 6,891,551 “Selection handles in editing electronic documents”
  • U.S. Patent 6,957,233 “Method and apparatus for capturing and rendering annotations for non-modifiable electronic content”

Contact

FFII Office Berlin
Malmöer Str. 6
D-10439 Berlin
Fon: +49-30-41722597
Fax Service: +49-721-509663769
office at ffii.org

About FFII

The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.

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