If this title said something like Apple vs Samsung there wouldn't be much surprise there, those two companies have been going at it in court and outside of court for years. But this time is not Apple that is having problems with Samsung, another IT giant has decided to sue them, this time it's Microsoft.
In case you didn't know Android is not free, well it is for the user but not for the company that wants to build smartphones with that operating system. Android is using a number of Microsoft patents, so if you want Android on your smartphones you have to pay royalties per-device to Microsoft. Redmond based company has been making a lot of money in the past years from these royalties.
Sumsung however stopped paying royalties ever since Microsoft bought Nokia's hardware department, according to them this was a break of their IP agreement. Of course Microsoft doesn't share this opinion so it looks like another patent war in court is about to happen.
David Howard from Microsoft had this to say : “After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract.” and he added “We are simply asking the Court to settle our disagreement, and we are confident the contract will be enforced,”
Considering Samsung is the world biggest manufacturer of Android based smartphones, this would mean a big loss for Microsoft if they just stop paying royalties. Who knows maybe this is just Microsoft's way of saying, hey if you are going to build Android smartphones it's going to cost you. But if you want to build Windows Phone smartphones you can do that for free. Guess if you are a huge company and you want to build millions of smartphones, this kinda makes sense.
According to various analysts and the speed of the courts, this is one lawsuit that could take years to end. Guess by now Samsung is use to being sued.
Source Microsoft.
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