Microsoft accused of enforcing inflated patent charges against Android supporters
by Steven Mostyn - Nov 9 2011, 04:44
Image: Google.
As Microsoft continues to languish as anything but a market leader in the mobile sector, American bookseller Barnes & Noble has this week suggested the software giant is using underhand tactics to stifle the competition.
That’s according to a Bloomberg report that reveals Barnes & Noble has asked U.S. regulators to launch a formal investigation into Microsoft’s practice of enforcing the payment of patent royalties against device makers running Google’s Android operating system.
“Microsoft is embarking on a campaign of asserting trivial and outmoded patents against manufacturers of Android devices,” outlined the company in a formal letter to the Justice Department’s chief counsel for competition policy.
“Microsoft is attempting to raise its rivals’ costs in order to drive out competition and to deter innovation in mobile devices,” it added.
Barnes & Noble’s accusations come after Microsoft attempted to block import sales of the bookseller’s Nook electronic reader by filing a multi-layered patent infringement complaint against it with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington.
Although it remains to be seen if Microsoft is indeed chasing disproportionate royalty payments from device makers favoring Android over its own Windows Phone platform, the software maker has previously said Android does indeed utilize a number of Microsoft patents.
By way of acknowledgement, it’s perhaps worth noting that several major device manufacturers and Android champions—including Samsung and HTC—have already agreed related licensing deals with Microsoft.
However, Barnes & Noble has intimated that Microsoft is demanding inflated royalties in order to increase the monetary costs of its market rivals while effectively replacing any losses incurred by device manufacturers opting for Android over Windows Phone.
That intimation goes as far as Barnes & Noble claiming that the inflated Android patent fees are the same as if Ballmer & Co. were actually charging for the use of Windows Phones.
News of Barnes & Noble’s complaint arrives in the same week the bookseller formally unveiled its Nook Tablet, which—you guessed it—runs on a modified version of Google Android.
Comment on this Story