News

Microsoft Enters Royalty Deal with Android Device Maker

• By Kurt Mackie
• June 27, 2011

Microsoft has scored another legal win against the Linux-based Android mobile OS, announcing on Monday that it has entered a deal with General Dynamics Itronix, a Florida-based manufacturer of ruggedized computers for the military, public service, professional and industrial markets. Under the agreement's terms, Microsoft will receive royalty payments from Itronix over the use of Android in some Itronix devices.

Itronix is a business unit subsidiary of the weapons manufacturer, General Dynamics.

Spokespersons from both Microsoft and Itronix did not provide any details. However, a spokesperson for Itronix did say, "The General Dynamics Itronix GD300, rugged, body-worn computer is based on the Android operating system."

Microsoft's deputy general counsel indicated Microsoft was "pleased" with the agreement. A director at Itronix said that the agreement will help meet the needs of Itronix customers when using the Android platform.

More settlements over Android and patents asserted by Microsoft are likely to appear in the near future. Microsoft settled with mobile device maker HTC over its use of Android back in April of last year.

Microsoft currently has legal battles over Android intellectual property use with Motorola and Barnes & Noble, both of which have vowed to fight in the courts. Motorola and Microsoft have already had a hearing via a venue with the U.S. International Trade Commission in which Microsoft has so far scored more points than Motorola in interpreting patent claims.

Barnes & Noble rolled out a legal defense of its Nook electronic book reader devices in April of this year. Microsoft claimed that two Nook devices, which use the Android mobile OS, had infringed on Microsoft's patents. The bookseller rebutted the allegations, saying in a legal brief that Microsoft is really attacking Android's market position and that its intellectual property claims about the Nook are based on "five insubstantial and trivial features." Microsoft is misusing the patent system to eliminate competition to its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, the Barnes & Noble legal brief claimed.

Microsoft infamously declared in 2007 that Linux infringed on 235 of Microsoft's patents, without specifying at the time which patents were involved. The declaration caused a furor among open source Linux advocates. Google, which fostered the Linux-based Android operating system, does not offer indemnity to the companies that use it, although Google apparently does provide some legal council on the matter. A spokesperson for Google had no comment on the patents involved in the General Dynamics Itronix case.