Microsoft has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Motorola with the International Trade Commission and the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. Microsoft claims that Motorola's Android smartphones infringe nine Microsoft patents. In a statement, Microsoft said that the patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola's Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronising e-mail, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power. Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing for Microsoft, said that it had 'a responsibility to its customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars it invests each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market'.
