TechPulse 360

Is Microsoft trying to create a monopoly in the car navigation market, scaring GPS device makers with some heavy handed patent infringement suits?

GPS maker TomTom rejected today Microsoft’s patent infringement allegations over 8 patents related to car navigation and Linux technologies; striking another blow for the financially-distressed Dutch company.

The software maker filed its complaint in a U.S. District Court in Washington and at the International Trade Commission and is seeking to block U.S. imports of TomTom’s navigation devices.

Microsoft claims that the two companies were unable to reach a patent-licensing agreement after talks that lasted less than a year.

“Microsoft provided defendant TomTom N.V. notice of its infringement allegations in a June 13, 2008 letter to Peter-Frans Pauwels, Chief Technical Officer of Defendant TomTom,” Microsoft said in its complaint.

Follows are the infringing patents:

1. Vehicle Computer System with Open Platform Architecture
2. Method and System For Generating Driving Directions
3. Methods and Arrangements for Interacting with Controllable Objects within a Graphical User Interface Environment Using Various Input Mechanisms
4. Portable Computing Device-integrated Appliance
5. Vehicle Computer System with Wireless Internet Connectivity
6. 2 patents on Common Name Space for Long and Short Filenames (Linux)
7. Method and System for File System Management Using a Flash-Erasable, Programmable, Read-only Memory (Linux)

However, some sees Microsoft’s Linux patent infringement allegation as another attempt to slow the innovation in the open source operating system.

The Linux operating system used in the portable navigation computing devices… also provide the devices with additional functionality such as file system support for long and short file names, memory managment for flash memory commonly used on such devices, and a platform for integrating and controlling various electronic components used with the portable navigation computing devices, such as other components in a vehicle

TomTom’s U.S. rival Garmin as well as Japanese GPS makers Alpine Electronics, Pioneer and JVC Kenwood have licensed Microsoft’s patents.

However, could the Dutch company really afford to comply with the software maker’s demands when TomTom is desperately trying to find ways to repay its debt.