Posted 04/05/09 at 02:06:02 PM by Justin Kerr

Last week Microsoft and TomTom finally reached a settlement in their ongoing patent dispute. As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for patent protection that covers it’s mapping, and file management systems, which as it turns out, are part of the Linux kernel. According to a company spokesperson, TomTom will “remove from its products the functionality related to two file management systems patents over the next two years.” The specific financial terms were not disclosed, but a legal cease fire between the two companies has been agreed upon for a five year period.

"We are pleased TomTom has chosen to resolve the litigation amicably by entering into a patent agreement," Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement. Industry analysts have been following the case very closely, since the Linux Kernel is at the heart of the infringements. This settlement opens the door for Microsoft to go after other firms who use Linux commercially. Microsoft has agreements in place with Linux heavy users such as LG, Samsung, and Xerox, but this victory gives them further ammunition in negotiations that don’t lead to a deal. Though the settlement is a long way from killing Linux commercially, it certainly gives Microsoft a lot more creditability in its ongoing assertions that the Linux kernel violates their intellectual property.

Read More

Posted 02/28/09 at 07:09:26 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft recently slapped TomTom with a patent infringement suit. The Redmond-based tech behemoth has claimed that TomTom’s devices are in direct violation of eight of its patents.

Some fear Microsoft’s suit against TomTom may be a straw in the wind, as three of the claims are related to the use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft’s lawyer Horacio Gutierrez tried to dispel such misgivings. He told Cnet that the claims pertaining to the implementation of “file management techniques used in the Linux kernel” are only specific to TomTom.

He insisted that Microsoft is not going to mount a massive legal assault against the open-source community. Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation’s executive director, also feels that it is unfair to jump to conclusions about the scope of this lawsuit. Gutierrez and Zemlin certainly don’t think that Microsoft’s suit against TomTom is an indicant of trouble for the open-source community. What do you think?

Read More