Microsoft Goes on the Offensive Against TomTom

Ben Romano from the Seattle Times reported today that Microsoft filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Seattle and the International Trade Commission against TomTom, the Amsterdam-based maker of portable GPS systems for in-car navigation, after more than a year of trying to reach a licensing arrangement. According to a company spokesperson, the patents cover "inventions that enable a vehicle computer system to run multiple applications, provide more natural driving directions, integrate other devices, and access the Internet." Microsoft's chief patent lawyer, Horacio Gutierrez, reportedly said in a statement: "We have an established intellectual property licensing program, and the patents involved in this case, relating to innovations in car navigation technology and other computing functionality, have been licensed by many others. In situations such as this, when a reasonable business agreement cannot be reached, we have no choice but to pursue legal action to protect our innovations and our partners who license them."

Apparently eight patents are involved, three pertaining to "technology that makes file management more efficient" and two covering "FAT Long File Name (LFN) patents that enable efficient naming, organizing, storing and accessing of file data." Other infringed patent reportedly allow file systems to work better with flash memory.

No patent numbers were immediately available. I'll post more information as it becomes available.

UPDATE: The patents involved are US 6,175,789; 7,054,745, 5,579,517, 5,758,352, and 6,256,642. A copy of the ITC action, filed by Sidley, is attached. tomtomitc.pdf

UPDATE: I also attach a copy of the USDC complaint, filed today in Seattle.tomtomComplaint.pdf