Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble and others over Android infringement

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 22 March 2011 11:16

IT Industry - Strategy

Microsoft has initiated legal action against bookseller Barnes & Noble, alleging patent infringement by the Nook e-book readers. The manufacturers of the devices were also named.

Microsoft has alleged patent infringement by Barnes & Noble in its Nook and Nook Color e-book readers, and by manufacturers Foxconn and Inventec. Legal action has been brought in the US District Court and the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

While the court can resolve the matter, the ITC is able to prevent the importation of infringing products.

Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez claimed "The Microsoft-created features protected by the patents infringed by the Nook and Nook Color tablet are core to the user experience."

They include the use of a separate tabbed navigation window, page display before the background image is received, the superimposition of download status on top of the content, the selection of text in a document, and document annotation without changing the underlying document.

"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 Mr Gutierrez.

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