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Our Blogs Open Sauce TomTom hits back, sues Microsoft
Our Blogs Open Sauce TomTom hits back, sues Microsoft | TomTom hits back, sues Microsoft |
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| by Sam Varghese | |
| Saturday, 21 March 2009 | |
  
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In the last week of February, Microsoft filed a suit alleging patent violation by TomTom and cited eight patents, three of which were to do with TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel. The four patents cited in the suit filed by TomTom are: US Patent 5,902,350: Generating a maneuver (sic) at the intersection through a turn lane; US Patent 5,938,720: Route generation in a vehicle navigation system; US Patent 6,600,994: Quick selection of destinations in an automobile navigation system; and US Patent 6,542,814: Methods and apparatus for dynamic point of interest display. The suit was filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on March 19 and seeks to stop Microsoft from producing Streets and Trips. It also seeks damages which have not been specified. Horacio Gutierrez, the corporate vice-president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing for Microsoft, said in a statement: "We are reviewing TomTom's filing, which we have just received. As has been the case for more than a year, we remain committed to a licensing solution, although we will continue to press ahead with the complaints we initiated in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington and the International Trade Commission." If TomTom were to come to an agreement with Microsoft over the suit which Microsoft filed, then that would preclude the company from using the Linux kernel in its GPS devices. According to section 7 of the GPL version 2, "...if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program." The Linux kernel is released under the GPLv2. There has been some speculation that Microsoft filed its complaint as a means of getting TomTom to either violate the GPL or else license Windows as the operating system for its GPS devices. |
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