Microsoft’s Android warpath will likely extend to Kindle Fire

By on Sep 30, 2011 at 11:20 AM
Legal September 30, 2011

Microsoft and Amazon signed a licensing agreement in February last year that covers technology used in the Kindle and various other products. That agreement does not cover Amazon’s new Android-powered Kindle Fire tablet, BGR has learned, which means Amazon could be coughing up hefty licensing fees to Microsoft in the near future. The Redmond-based company recently signed a cross-licensing agreement with Samsung and has similar deals in place with HTC, ViewSonic and other Android device vendors. Microsoft will take home an estimated $444 million in 2012 from Android royalties according to a recent Goldman Sachs report, and the Redmond-based firm’s warpath is likely to continue. Read on for more.

“In 2010, we signed a cross-licensing agreement with Amazon that includes coverage for Amazon’s popular e-reading device, Kindle, which employs both open source and Amazon’s proprietary software components, and Amazon’s use of Linux-based servers. Our agreement does not cover Android tablets,” a Microsoft spokesperson told BGR. “Amazon is a valued and respected business partner. Our previous agreement is a reflection of our ongoing collaboration and we look forward to building on this relationship.”

Microsoft said it will not comment on further action it may or may not take against Amazon related to the Kindle Fire, but considering the company’s recent moves, Microsoft may already be pursuing a new licensing agreement with Amazon similar to the deals it struck with HTC and Samsung. As Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith recently told AllThingsD during an interview, ”So far we have not seen a single Android device that does not infringe on our patents.”

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  • http://twitter.com/Synergi Synergi

    Who says falling asleep at the wheel can’t pay?

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    • http://twitter.com/UgglyUI UgglyUI

      Microsoft the biggest patenttroll

  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    Go Microsoft!! Teach Google that stealing is bad!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Umairmuhammadalikhan-Umairkhan/100000724275502 Umairmuhammadalikhan Umairkhan

      Norm is a google bitch i hear’d but what’s that ?!

  • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

    This is an obvious post. Microsoft is suing Barnes & Noble for the Nook Color, and the Kindle Fire is basically the exact same situation. Stupid posts are stupid folks.

    That being said, Microsoft needs to stop these nonsense, and start making money off their own products.

    • Anonymous

      At the same time, Google needs to stop giving away infringing IP. Either your suggestion or mine will fix this problem, but neither is likely to occur.

      • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

        That’s an idiotic statement. You can’t stick a wheel on something to make it roll, without infringing on a patent for a method of attaching a cylindrical object to a non-cylindrical object for the purpose of allowing the cylindrical object to spin.

        Simply put, in this day and age, you’re either infringing, or you’re infringing. The patent system should not be given more money by the government like it just was, the patent system needs to be disassembled.

      • mangenius

        but the patent was given and microsoft owns the IP.  You should not have an issue with Microsoft but rather how the patent system operates.

      • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

        Law that’s unjust is unjust, any way you slice it. If rape was legal, would you go rape people? Microsoft should be ashamed of it’s abuse of a clearly harmful system.

      • atimoshenko

        Nothing wrong with cross-licensing. Although both companies would need to have valuable IP for that. Small start-ups should certainly be protected from any IP abuse by the giants, but IP battles between megacorps such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Samsung? That’s better for competition and better for the consumer.

      • Anonymous

        So you think Google would be completely ok with Microsoft ripping off PageRank?

      • Anonymous

        How is owning a patent unjust? Just pay before you get sued. These companies develop their products, praying with their fingers crossed that the IP holder won’t sue. But they always do eventually. If you can’t afford to pay license fees, then you can’t afford to produce a “successful” product. Pay-up! Just because you can’t hold it or see it, doesn’t mean it’s free.

    • Anonymous

      Or they could make money off their own products on top of others who are using their tech, win win.

    • fandroid

      They are making money off their product, albeit forcibly.

    • Anonymous

      MS has been in business fr a long time… sometimes it’s not just innovation that gets you to the next level, but business savvy.  This of it this way – MS is hedging their bet right now.  If Android beats up the mobile space, good for MS too.  If MS takes more share, no big deal, they win here too.  Google screwed up with Android as it’s not really open source.  Too much of the base is patent protected, and therefor will always be “taxed.”

      • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

        Open source = the source code is publicly available for download.

        This has nothing to do with open source, please learn what you’re talking about.

      • Anonymous

        Actually, “Open Source” and the GPL go hand in hand… and within the “Android” source there are parts that you CAN NOT alter.  Android is not completely open source, and depending on which version of the GPL you’re using (and I don’t know which Android uses), there are various ways to lock down pieces of the code to licensing and/or patents that, again, are against the general “open source” movement.

      • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

        meske1, you’re also not understanding the definition of open source.

        The source is there, and you can download it, open it, and look at it. Regardless of any other terms, it is open source.

    • Anonymous

      Microsoft, the lamprey of the tech industry.

    • bgs

      They are making money off their on products.They are making billions off  Windows 7, office, xbox 360& kinect, cloud computing and servers and the list goes on and on….. Google is stealing their technology and you expect microsoft to sit back and say go right ahead. I mean Oracle, apple and microsoft are all wrong and google is right. Trust me on this, samsung, htc, acer and other android vendors are not going to give their money away if they did not feel they are in danger of losing. Facts are facts and that’s the bottom line.

    • Anonymous

      I am no fan of MS but in reply to your statement:  MS patents are MS products and so it looks like Microsoft are making money off their own products.

  • Anonymous

    This is bull crap. It is basically anal rapeage. Trust me. I know anal rapeage. My Papi “taxes” my ass every night. I hate NYC

  • BurleyShells

    Seeing as I’m a business student and have an interest in corporate law, Microsoft is probably one of my favorite companies right now. Well done.

  • Apogee_vgc

    Microsoft has turned into the angry, bitter old man that lives at the end of the block and yells at all the kids that walk by the house.

    • mangenius

      Because if one of those kids came into your yard and stole some of your stuff you would smile, wave and say thank you..

    • Anonymous

      … And steals their bikes and sells them on eBay

  • Anonymous

    Whole PATENT system is rotten. Its seems to be running for companies like Apple/M$.

    It never encouraging betterment of existing things.

  • Anonymous

    I’m so tired of hearing about these patent fee’s!!

    • Anonymous

      It’s “fees.”

      When exactly did schools stop teaching the difference between the plural form of a word (“friends”, “dogs”, etc) and the singular possessive form (“dog’s”, “friend’s”, etc). 

      • Anonymous

        You really need to get a life professor!

      • http://twitter.com/Metagnostic Thurston Smalley

        Sorry, but it should hardly take a professor to teach you how to add an ‘s’ to the end of words to make them plural.

  • Anonymous

    Ok, microsoft…
    From now on, STOP INNOVATING JUST SUE THE CRAP OF EVERY ANDROID MANUFACTURER AND JUST SIT DOWN AND WAIT FOR YOUR MONEY… WHAT A BUNCH OF TOOLS…
    APPLE AND MICROSOFT are like whores that wants to get the money from you till the last drop.
    Please if I were you, I will just patent all what you have even the moronic and super simple patent and use it for your advantage…
    Obama govt., will you check this stupid patent infringing games this will make innovation slow and our technology improvement will suffer.
    IM SICK AND TIRED OF APPLE AND MICROSOFT…

    • Anonymous

      Baby want his bawwwwtoe??

    • Anonymous

      And infringing on patents is innovating in what way exactly? For some reason all of you stupid Android fanboys fail to comprehend that what Google is doing is plain wrong. There is no creativity in violating patents, all that’s happening is Google is ripping off what the other companies have done in the past. Just grow up please and try to understand that these companies are protecting what belongs to them.

  • Anonymous

    So microsoft owns linux.

    • Anonymous

      Microsoft believes Linux infringes on its patents

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  • Booboolala2000

    So glad that Googlerola never made a winphone7 device. Happy to not have Microsoft in my house.

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      whos your tv service provider? Internet provider?

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  • Vargabeles

    big fish eat small fish, the more money you have the more you can make, if it was Apple in Microsoft’s place there would not be any android devices on the market

  • Anonymous

    Microsoft suing for royalties is still better then apple, who would rather ban a product then compete against it. I agree, if android infringes they should pay but a product should never be banned unless it endangers the health of the consumer. 

  • felipe peko

    Most people who think “it’s how law works” have a few misunderstanding of the patent problems.
    Here are a few of the problem the patent system has right now:
    1- Easy to get a broad and obvious patent
    2- Very hard, time consuming and expensive to get this patent invalidated
    3- Very hard, time consuming and expensive to fight a patent lawsuit, even if you don’t infringe
    4- Cheaper to pay a license then fight a big company with so many resources
    5- Judges and USPTO do not have any technological background to understand software patents
    6- Last and most important, patents were not meant to give a right to a inventor to get rich, patents were meant first and foremost to benefit the society as whole, in which a disclosed invention would be better than a trade secret and it was supposed to help innovation with it’s protection on the disclosed idea. Except that on software (and most areas actually, even drugs), with people gaming the system, this is actually making things harder, because nowadays inventors would achieve the same without patents, but can’t because the patent exist. And again, inventor would still invent because competition (the thing patents are preventing right now) is enough to usher innovation for any company.

  • RichS900

    does anyone know what exact patents all the manufactures are using?

  • Anonymous

    Of course we knew this will happened. M$ only way to make easy money since their WPM doesn’t makes them any they sue.

  • Anonymous

    Obvious MS will go for Amazon. So will Oracle.

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