Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Sues Motorola Over Mapping Patents
jfruh writes "The mobile patent wars continue, with two of the world's biggest tech companies about to blunder into direct conflict. Microsoft holds a number of patents that it claims give it rights over mobile map applications that overlay data from multiple databases (map info from one database and store location info from another, for instance). Many Android vendors already pay Redmond licensing fees for their mapping apps; now Redmond is going to court in Germany to sue one of the holdouts: Motorola Mobility, which is of course owned by Google."
I've got a solution for the whole shebang. Sue the USPTO every time a court rules they issued a bad patent - it's they who screw up the most, after all. Pretty soon they'll have no money left and will either shut down or will make each patent application a 100 million dollars.
As soon as someone sells hardware along with the software, software patents turn into hardware patents and then you can sue even in Europe. It's magic!
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
Does anyone know why two American companies are suing each other in Germany? Are these German patents?
Two reasons that I can think of...
1. The patent in question is european (although it appears to be also filed as a US patent as well).
2. The law firm they are using, Bardehle Pagenberg, has apparently won more injunctions against Android than any other law firm in the world.
AFAIK, the patent in question actually came into Microsoft's possession after it purchased Multimap.com (a UK based company) back in 2007, which jives with the european flavor of this dispute.