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Software giant Microsoft filed a patent infringement lawsuit against navigation-system maker TomTom this week, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and in the International Trade Commission (ITC).
According to Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing Horacio Gutierrez, the action takes place after one year of discussions with TomTom resulted in no business agreement between the two.
The patents Microsoft is referring to are related to car navigation technology and other computing functionality, that the Redmond-based company said have been licensed by many others. However, Gutierrez added, Microsoft is still open to solving the situation through an IP licensing agreement.
But whether this lawsuit also revolves around the old Linux problem or not, Microsoft is not willing to give specific details on that. However, Gutierrez did admit in an interview with CNET News that three of the claims are related to the use of Linux kernel, in addition to the other 5 claims related to car navigation systems.
This is because both of these aspects are connected to TomTom, and this is just a normal course-of-business dispute between the two companies. This is not the focal point of the action, Gutierrez further said.
At the same time, the company continues to maintain its attitude toward open-source software, but that doesn’t mean they will not also continue to protect their intellectual property (let’s not forget that Microsoft also contents Linux violates a good number of its patents).
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