Microsoft Takes TomTom to Court over Patents

February 26, 2009

On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. filed a lawsuit against TomTom NV and Tom Tom, Inc., claiming the Netherlands-based company had infringed on several patents. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and in the International Trade Commission (ITC).

“We have taken this action after attempting for more than a year to engage in licensing discussions with TomTom,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing for Microsoft. The company reportedly listed eight patent violations found in TomTom's Linux OS-based PNDs, three involving TomTom devices' use of the FAT software file system and five relating to in-car navigation technologies.

"We reject the claim and will vigorously defend ourselves," TomTom spokesman Taco Titulaer said in response.

“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 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. Other companies that utilize Microsoft patents have licensed and we are asking TomTom to do the same.

Gutierrez continued, “TomTom is a highly respected and important company. We remain open to quickly resolving this situation with them through an IP licensing agreement."

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