Microsoft v. TomTom (2008, USA)

Microsoft v. TomTom is an infringement action in the USA, begun by Microsoft in June 2008 and which became a big news story in early 2009. The end result was that TomTom paid Microsoft for an out of court settlement.

Details

As well as filing suit against TomTom, Microsoft applied to the USA International Trade Commission to block imports into the USA of TomTom's car navigation systems.

The patents allegedly infringed by TomTom included the Microsoft FAT patents, which raised discussion among free software users about the continued use of FAT filesystems and about Microsoft's aggression.

During the media flurry, TomTom became a licensee of Open Invention Network. (Can you help? What effect, if any, did that have?)

Related pages on en.swpat.org

• Litigation
• Case law in the USA

External links

• The complaint filed in the federal court
• The complaint filed at the International Trade Commission

Initial news stories

• Microsoft sues TomTom over Linux and other patent claims
• Microsoft sues TomTom
• Analyzing Microsoft's TomTom Lawsuit, by Bruce Perens
• Brian Kahin: Microsoft Roils the World with FAT Patents

Analyses of settlement

• SFLC: Settled, but not over yet (and Groklaw's coverage)
• Bruce Perens: Microsoft and TomTom Settle, Justice and Linux Lose
• Red Hat's comment

Later analyses and discussion

• 2009-05-07 Trimming the FAT: Linux and Patents
• 2009-04-16 TomTom/Microsoft: A Wake-Up Call for GPLv3 Migration, by Bradley Kuhn

References

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