Microsoft and General Dynamics Itronix sign Android patent deal

By Tom Warren, on 27th Jun 11 7:40 pm with 42 Comments

Microsoft announced on Monday that it has signed a patent agreement with General Dynamics Itronix.

The agreement covers General Dynamics Intronix devices running the Android operating system. Microsoft refused to detail the contents of the agreement but revealed that they will receive royalties from General Dynamics Intronix as part of the agreement. “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with General Dynamics Itronix, which is an example of how industry leaders address intellectual property,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft.

Microsoft and HTC signed a patent agreement last year relating to HTC’s mobile phones running Android. Although the terms of the deal were undisclosed, it was recently reported that Microsoft receives $5 for every HTC device sold. Microsoft is widely believed to generate more revenue from Android patents than its own Windows Phone licences. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has previously said that Android is not free. “Android has a patent fee. It’s not like Android’s free,” he said in October last year. Microsoft has been pursuing Taiwan-based handset makers Acer and Asustek. The company is trying to muscle the vendors into agreeing a patent deal in an attempt to thwart the spread of Android and Chrome OS. Both ASUS and Acer have been using Android on a number of devices.

Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Motorola in October, claiming their Android handsets infringed nine Microsoft patents. ASUS and Acer have avoided paying any license cost or royalty fees as Android is free. Other handset makers have had to pay royalty fees of at least $10-15 per device to officially use the patents concerned. Microsoft claims its latest deal is “another example” of its intellectual property (IP) portfolio.

  • Test1ngi23

    “The company is trying to muscle the vendors into agreeing a patent deal
    in an attempt to thwart the spread of Android and Chrome OS.”

    Sad. Whatever happened to the old fashioned days of competing by making better products?

    • Anonymous

      What ever happened to not stealing someones shit. If you use it, pay for it.

    • Test1ngi23

      Idk. I just find it hard to believe that HTC, General Dynamics Itronix, Acer, and Asustek all purposely stole patents from MS. Did they use some code for a “virtual” PageUp or PageDown key?

    • RoboDad

      Whether or not there was intent is irrelevant.  Ignorance of patent law is no excuse.  If they used technologies or processes that are patented, then they are required BY LAW to either stop using them or pay the patent holder for the right to continue.

    • Test1ngi23

      Then how might a developer check through EVERY SINGLE software patent in the world for EVERY SINGLE feature they add, to ensure they are not stepping on a patent. I don’t think there is a way. Software patents are like a minefield. They HOPE you’ll slip up and step on one. I just can’t see how that’s any good for the industry as a whole.

    • Anonymous

      Simple. The patent holder will let you know. Then your lawyers can determine If it’s valid. Since Htc and others are paying this, asus knows they are infringing. They are just stalling.

    • Guest

      The flaw in your argument is that the industry has developed quite nicely despite decades of this process being the law of the land. Anyway, how you feel about it doesn’t matter. I don’t like income taxes. Deal with it.

    • Grs_dev

      and over 7 million patents if I may add!

    • Test1ngi23

      So I, and like-minded developers, should just give on any hope and/or attempts of improving the system and accept that this is a good as it will ever be?

    • Test1ngi23

      So I, and like-minded developers, should just give on any hope and/or attempts of improving the system and accept that this is a good as it will ever be?

    • Guest

      Whining about the system, or denying its success over previous decades != improving it.

    • Test1ngi23

      Successes? In what? Getting lawyers rich? And not supporting patent trolls like Microsoft and Apple is one way to help improve it.

    • Guest

      Innovation. Open your eyes and look around, especially in the US where patent protections are the strongest.

      MS rarely sues over patents. Licensing of legitimate patents != patent troll, except maybe to an anti MS troll like yourself.

    • Grs_dev

      Every serious software development or engineering and innovation organization performs due diligence and IP research as early as possible. Typically right after the inception of the idea.

      Microsoft is not trying to stop you as a developer from innovating. They’re simply trying to protect their intellectual properties which they’ve spent billions harvesting just like Google just like Apple!

    • Tom

      No.

      Standard practice in the industry is to do *no* patent research under any circumstances whatsoever.  Because willful infringement is punished by tripling the damages awarded in a lawsuit — even if you took a look at the patent and honestly reached the conclusion that it did not apply.

      This is one of many reasons why the patent system is broken.

      As for this particular case, Itronix obviously did not infringe the patents by itself.  It’s Android that infringes those patents.  Since Google has not licensed those patents from Microsoft, each individual manufacturer has to do this instead.  All this argument over whether Itronix willfully infringed those patents is silly — they didn’t, they just used an OS that did.

    • Guest

      There’s no argument around whether they willfully infringed or not. That just some stupidity introduced by your other alias. It doesn’t matter whether the infringement was willful or not, just that it occurred. Itronix agreed it did and therefore took the responsible action: license.

    • Anonymous

      I don’t know what they are using without permission. Might be something GSM releated [doubt it], may be the way the file system is handled. But believe me, those companies are not playing MS 5 – 10 bucks per phone, if they don’t believe those patents were not valid.

    • Hadri03

      added that they may not have WANTED them to use it in the first place.

    • GRS_DEV

      The patents were infringed upon by Android not these manufacturers. The Manufacturers are having to pay MS to thwart them off because Google has refused to back Android legally all the while reaping all the benefits of its usage and the data its users are producing.

      Who’s “evil” now?

    • Justfortherecord

      you guys are all funny today

    • Justfortherecord

      you guys are all funny today

    • Justfortherecord

      you guys are all funny today

    • Test1ngi23

      It’s not the attacker’s fault that the victim got attacked! The victim wasn’t defending himself! It’s the victim’s fault!

    • Trollsrmorons

      Legally, the victim here is the person whose patents have been violated, not the person violating them. How you feel about that is irrelevant. All that matters is that these companies, after investigating the claims and their various defenses, chose to settle.

    • Grs_dev

      so it’s your fault if you get raped by someone who managed to break in your house and maul you? Is English your first language? Am I the only one who is not understanding what Test1ngi23′s argument is at this point?

    • Test1ngi23

      I think you are the only one.

    • Test1ngi23

      I think you are the only one.

    • Test1ngi23

      I think you are the only one.

    • Test1ngi23

      I think you are the only one.

    • Test1ngi23

      I think you are the only one.

    • Test1ngi23

      I think you are the only one.

    • Guest

      No, he isn’t. You analogy fails on several levels.

    • GRS_DEV

      The patents were infringed upon by Android not these manufacturers. The Manufacturers are having to pay MS to thwart them off because Google has refused to back Android legally all the while reaping all the benefits of its usage and the data its users are producing.

      Who’s “evil” now?

    • Guest

      They’re doing both. Try and keep up.

  • Joe

    Lol.

  • http://twitter.com/H4R4lD Harald Prassl

    Fack evil Micro$oft ! Patentroll and Nazilike !

    • Guest

      For someone purportedly residing in Germany, you should be smarter than to throw around the Nazi monicker.

  • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

    The reason why ASUS and Acer have not signed on this microsoft agreement is because they are not really full-on with Android as in Smartphones. If they were, given their relation with Microsoft, i bet they would have signed on to it already.

    • Guest

      The reason they haven’t signed on is that they think they have enough leverage on MS given their OEM status that MS won’t sue them. So far, they’re right.

    • Aaron

      If that were true then HTC would have ignored MS.  I don’t have any numbers on me, but I don’t think ASUS and Acer have THAT large of the OEM market that MS would be afraid of them.  Besides, what are they going to do?  Stop shipping laptops with Windows?

    • Aaron

      If that were true then HTC would have ignored MS.  I don’t have any numbers on me, but I don’t think ASUS and Acer have THAT large of the OEM market that MS would be afraid of them.  Besides, what are they going to do?  Stop shipping laptops with Windows?

    • Guest

      HTC has very little leverage over MS. They’re mostly selling Android these days and MS makes very little off WP7 licenses anyway (read they’re losing money on WP7 overall, and lots of it). Acer, I believe, is the #3 PC OEM worldwide these days (or maybe #4). Asus is one of the largest PC motherboard OEMs and a significant system supplier directly as well. Specifically, they’re the people who first promoted Linux on netbooks, thereby breaking with MS and causing Redmond a year of panic and price drops before they were able to wrestle back most of the netbook business. Both Acer and Asus’s CEO’s have recently been quoted saying they want to see more choice in PCs, meaning more non-MS options. There’s not a lot of love between MS and OEMs anymore. Actually, there never was since MS used to beat the shit out of them when they could. What they can do is start shipping Linux, or Chrome, or Android on more and more models, which is what they’re already starting to do. That’s their leverage, and it’s not insignificant. And we’re talking Windows revenue, not WP7. MS’s largest cash cow. Remember, MS now faces a similar concern with HP, their largest OEM, who is now going to be shipping Web OS on some systems and again has a CEO quoted as saying he wants to see a mix of somewhere near 70 or 80 versus today’s near 100%.