Microsoft Takes Legal Action Against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec for Patent Infringement by Android Devices
Statement from Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing
Redmond, Wash. — March 21, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today filed legal actions in the International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington against Barnes & Noble, Inc. and its device manufacturers, Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. and Inventec Corporation, for patent infringement by their Android-based e-reader and tablet devices that are marketed under the Barnes & Noble brand.
“The Android platform infringes a number of Microsoft’s patents, and companies manufacturing and shipping Android devices must respect our intellectual property rights. To facilitate that we have established an industry-wide patent licensing program for Android device manufacturers,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property & Licensing. “Other vendors, including HTC, a market leader in Android smartphones, have taken a license under this program, and we have tried for over a year to reach licensing agreements with Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec. Their refusals to take licenses leave us no choice but to bring legal action to defend our innovations and fulfill our responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year to bring great software products and services to market,” he added.
The patents at issue cover a range of functionality embodied in Android devices that are essential to the user experience, including: natural ways of interacting with devices by tabbing through various screens to find the information they need; surfing the Web more quickly, and interacting with documents and e-books.
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I have also included a brief overview of the patents subject to this action.
Legal Action Against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec – Summary of Related Patents
This case is based on infringement by Android-based devices of key Microsoft patented innovations that help e-readers and tablets make user-friendly. Our patents help make possible key features that users have come to expect from their tablets and other “smart” devices.
· People value natural ways of interacting with e-readers and tablets. People want easy ways to navigate through information provided by their device apps. Microsoft’s patents help with this by creating a separate control window that displays tabs listing various types of information.
· People use their devices to surf the Web. When people access the Internet, they value the speed with which web pages appear. Microsoft’s patents enable the page’s content to be displayed before the background image is received. This allows users to begin interacting with the page immediately, without having to wait for their device to download a large image file. Users also want to know the download status of their content. Our patents enable this information to be superimposed on the content display as new content is downloading.
· People access and interact with documents and other e-content from their devices. When using a document, they want to be able to select text and adjust that selection easily. They also want to be able to annotate text– particularly when reading an e-book. Our patents enable users to select text and easily expand their selection either direction, as well as annotate text without changing the underlying document.
That Microsoft has important patents in this area should not surprise anyone – we’ve spent over 30 years developing cutting-edge computer software.
Deeper Dive
· Technologies that enable natural user interaction are key to the success of mobile devices.
o People also expect to be able to access command windows without interfering with the application’s main window, and to be able to tab through various screens to find the information they need. Microsoft’s patents enable the opening of a new, tabbed control window. (U.S. Patent No. 5,889,522)
· Our technologies help speed up web surfing and keep users informed of download status.
o Surfing the web quickly is a key device feature. One of the patents in this case enables devices to show the content of a page even while the background is still rendering, allowing users to interact with the page more quickly. (U.S. Patent No. 5,778,372)
o Users also want to know the status of their downloads. A Microsoft patent provides information about download status on top of the content display. (U.S. Patent No. 6,339,780)
· Our innovations facilitate users’ ability to interact with document and other e-content.
o The ability to select text is critical to working with documents. One of our patents enables users to select text, see what is selected via highlighting, and expand the selection in either direction as desired. (U.S. Patent No. 6,891,551)
o Users also want to annotate e-books and other documents. A Microsoft patent allows people to insert and review annotations without changing the underlying document, and to select annotations and be brought to the related portion of the document. (U.S. Patent No. 6,957,233)