Microsoft Chases TomTom in Patent Dispute

After unsuccessfully prodding TomTom to license technologies it claims are its own, Microsoft has taken the Dutch company to court.

Not many would have seen a patent war coming GPS maker TomTom and software giant Microsoft, but the two relativelydissimilar companies are heading to court.  Microsoft announced on Thursday that it had filed suit againstTomTom in a Washington court for allegedly infringing on its intellectual property.

According to Microsoft corporate vice president Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft attempted for more than a year to enter a licensing agreement with TomTom before taking legal action.

“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.” Gutierrez said in a statement. “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.”

On its side, TomTom has geared up for legal war. “We reject the claim and will vigorously defend ourselves,” spokesman Taco Titulaer told Reuters.

Because the specific patents focus on the way TomTom’s Linux-based navigators store files, many outlets speculate that this may be the beginning of an attack on open source in general. Gutierrez has denied that claim, telling CNet, “This is just a normal course-of-business dispute between two companies. (Linux) is not the focal point of the action.”