There has been no lack of vitriol thrown Microsoft’s way these past few weeks in regards to the software giant’s litigious attitude towards Android. Many have conjectured that Redmond’s primary MO is to use its patent portfolio to generate a revenue flow from Android rather than protecting intellectual property. Up until now there was no proof of such, but with the recent release of information from Barnes & Noble about how Microsoft has been trying to nail it with the gavel, we now have insight as to what’s going on behind the legal curtain.
In a detailed breakdown of Barnes & Nobles’ letter to the ITC and the US Department of Justice, Groklaw does an excellent job of shedding light on the exact patents Microsoft is claiming Android infringes on. All of them are in regards to trivial items, most of them from outdated features.
Here are the six patents that Redmond is using to bully such companies as HTC, Samsung and Amazon:
- Background image loading. This patent deals with an antiquated method of downloading an embedded background image. It is geared towards people using dial-up connections, which shows its age. It is a bit puzzling that it’s being applied to Android; last we checked the data rate for smartphones is well above 56Kbps.
- Operating system provided tabs. Another head-scratcher here, Microsoft is saying that it has the rights to “tabs that work like dividers in a notebook” that are OS-generated. What’s interesting is IBM already proved this patent as invalid back in 1992 during the OS/2 days. Tabs are something that are present in all platforms on the market. Why wait until now to drag this dead horse back out?
- Handles when selecting text. Are you beginning to see the pattern of ridiculousness here? Redmond’s lawyers are saying that they own the right to the handles that appear when a user selects text on a device. The problem with this one is that the patent does not provide the code that was used to achieve the handles — so who knows if B&N, or any other Android users, are actually infringing.
- Annotation of electronic documents. This is the process of capturing annotations made in an e-book or similar document without changing the original copy. It sounds like Microsoft is losing a ton of money on this one.
- Web browser loading status icons.
- Simulating mouse inputs using non-mouse devices. So every touchscreen ever created should have to pay royalties or licensing fees to Microsoft.
With Microsoft trying to leverage these trivial patents it makes you wonder why HTC, Samsung, and more recently Amazon, rolled over and made deals to avoid litigation. Yes, all three companies have the resources to just pay Redmond to go away, but on its face looks like an easy win. It will be interesting to see how Barnes & Nobel fares during this process.
