Microsoft brings it’s Linux grudge to Android

Many of you will remember years ago when Microsoft was so afraid of Linux, it threatened to sue any company that used it with patent infringement. These threats resulted in many companies, including Novell, to set up cross-licensing agreements with Microsoft. These agreements were basically agreements that said if “you license this technology from Microsoft, we won’t sue you for patent infringement”.

Down late in the mobile game, Microsoft is going back to that play, now with Android as the target. And can you blame them? It worked the last time, and they were in a position of dominance with Windows versus Linux. In the mobile space, they are getting creamed by the iPhone and Android. And Microsoft’s answer to both those threats won’t be out until the 4th quarter of this year.

So Microsoft has exerted patent pressure on it’s cheating lover, HTC. HTC was once the top producer of smart phones running the Microsoft Mobile OS. Now, they are one of the top producers of Android phones.

Under this “agreement”, Microsoft will receive royalties from HTC for using the Android OS on their phones. Think about that for a second. Android is open source. Google doesn’t require any licensing fees or royalties when a company uses Android. Of course, Google is usually the default search provider on these devices, and receives most of its compensation from that service. But the precedent here is huge. HTC now pays Microsoft for the privelege of using Google’s operating system on it’s phones.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I can’t believe that Google will let this go unanswered. Android has just started to pick up steam in the mobile arena, and this precedent could turn off a lot of hardware manufacturers from going the Android route on their products.

Of course, the big winner here is Apple. Having it’s two other rivals fighting each other means that they aren’t directing their resources at fighting Apple.

Category: News