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June 17, 2014

Microsoft's Android Patents Are Now Public

Tech giant Microsoft has many patents to its name. These patents cover a wide range of technologies including those needed to build Android smartphones. As a part of its competitive strategy, Microsoft is using these Android patents to sue Android app makers and to get a licensing fee out of it. An example of a similar situation occurred in 2011 when Microsoft sued Barnes & Noble for its Android-powered Nook reader.

Despite these litigation tactics, the exact nature of patents has always remained unknown because Microsoft wanted to keep it under wraps. However, this secret trove has become public now, thanks to the list of patents published by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on their official web page. According to this information, there are 310 patents owned by Microsoft that it may use to extract licensing revenue from Android app developers. The list of patents is divided into three sections, where the first one consists of 72 patents that fall in the category of “Standard Essential Patents” (SEP). Most of these patents are related to networking and the technology needed to make smartphones. The second list contains 127 patents that are believed to be implemented in Android, while the third section consists of 42 patents and 68 patent applications that may be essential for the creation of certain specific features in Android apps such as patent 5,982,324 that describes how GPS should be combined with cell phone signals.

This revelation by the Chinese government happened as a part of its investigation into the Microsoft- Nokia deal. This list of patents gives a greater degree of transparency about the patents held by Microsoft, and the licensing agreement that it has struck with thousands of Android app makers.

Going forward, it is hoped that such information about patents is public as it will provide a better and more transparent intellectual property rights system. 





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