TomTom Sues Microsoft For Patent Infringement

CWmike writes "GPS device maker TomTom has shot back at Microsoft with a claim of patent infringement, after the software giant raised concerns in the Linux community with a recent lawsuit against TomTom. In a suit filed earlier this week, TomTom alleges that Microsoft infringes on four patents in mapping software Microsoft Streets and Trips. TomTom is asking for triple damages for willful infringement, since it says it had notified Microsoft about its alleged infringement. Microsoft said it was reviewing TomTom's filing and that it remains committed to a licensing solution and has been for more than a year."

Re:Yet another patent story...

[heironymouscoward]

Check the Firehose for another patent story (some fools tried to claim a patent on SOAP!)

Re:Virtual Earth?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since 1991 according to their website.

Re:Yet another patent story...

[pieterh]

Too lazy to post the link?

http://yro.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=3828063&art_pos=7 [slashdot.org]

ftfy

Re:Total War?

[morgan_greywolf]

Not likely.

Seriously. TomTom is a much smaller company than Microsoft. It isn't likely that they would launch a patent strike against Microsoft (unless their CEO happens to be Darl McBride ;), a company with a much bigger portfolio and more cash. As a comparison, according to TomTom's 2007 annual report, at that time, they had ~$2 billion in assets world wide. Microsoft has ~$20 billion just in cash.

Re:Virtual Earth?

[morgan_greywolf]

MS Virtual Earth has been around since the 1990's.

So has TomTom [tomtom.com].

Re:Virtual Earth?

[alen]

and when was this patent filed? Streets and Trips has been around since the 1990's as well. we used to use it in the army to drive from italy to germany

Re:It is 2009. The binary is no longer the product

[Zero__Kelvin]

You missed the point, which is that attacking TomTom for using Linux kernel code is attacking Linux kernel code. Their claim is that they are not doing so, when they are in fact clearly doing so.

HTH ;-)

Re:Although ...

[gbjbaanb]

Even though Microsoft streets used to ship with win95, way before TomTom existed,

someone else who thinks that SatNav is a 21st century invention.

From http://investors.tomtom.com/overview.cfm?Language=1 [tomtom.com]

"TomTom was founded by Harold Goddijn, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen in 1991"

That'll be 4 years before Win95.

Re:MAD

[mikael]

In the past 10 years, the most notable patent lawsuits were:

SCO vs. Linux - After hundreds of millions of dollars were blown away in lawyers legal fees, the judge rules that Linux didn't infringe on SCO's intellectual property. Best site for news here is Groklaw [groklaw.com]

3Dfx vs. Nvidia - 3dfx lost and merged into Nvidia [firingsquad.com]

Rambus vs. Hynix vs Micron Technology vs. Infineon Technologies vs. Siemens AG. vs. Samsung

Rambus seemed to be suing just about everyone, and everyone else was countersuing Rambus and each other. Legal letters seem to be flying around like chairs in a Saturday night bar fight.

Hynix to pay Rambus $379 million in patent dispute [theregister.co.uk]

A complete list of legal updates provided by Rambus [rambus.com]

Micron vs. Rambus [cnet.com]

Although it does seem better to settle all patent disputes with cross-licensing as soon as possible, rather than slogging it out into bankruptcy

Rambus and Infineon settle patent dispute [out-law.com]

Re:MAD

[merchant_x]

You forgot the whole RIM vs NTP debacle.

Settlement reached in BlackBerry patent case
Research in Motion pays NTP $612.5 million; devices to stay on

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11659304/ [msn.com]

Re:Total War?

[TheRaven64]

No, because the grandparent is suggesting that Microsoft filed suit in response to TomTom notifying them of infringement. By filing suit first, Microsoft are in a better position to negotiate a cross-licensing deal. If TomTom had kept quiet then it's possible that Microsoft would not have filed suit. Under US law (as of a few years ago) the damages you can claim for patent infringement are much lower if you can claim you were unaware of the patent. By notifying Microsoft of their infringement, TomTom increased the potential damages for a lawsuit and may have triggered Microsoft's filing.