Microsoft on Monday sued Barnes & Noble, claiming patent infringement by the largest book retailer in the United States.
Microsoft said it filed legal actions on Monday in both the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington against Barnes & Noble, as well as Foxconn and Inventec, two manufacturers of Barnes & Noble's devices.
According to Microsoft, the actions focus on the patent infringement by Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader and tablet, both of which run Google's Android operating system.
The patents at issue cover a range of functionality embodied in Android devices that are essential to the user experience, including natural ways of interacting with devices by tabbing through various screens to find the information they need, surfing the Web more quickly and interacting with documents and e-books, Microsoft said in a press release.
"The Android platform infringes a number of Microsoft's patents, and companies manufacturing and shipping Android devices must respect our intellectual property rights," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, was quoted by the press release as saying.
Writing in a separate company blog post, Gutierrez said that the latest actions bring to 25 the total number of Microsoft patents in litigation for infringement by Android smartphones, tablets and other devices.
He noted that Microsoft has established a licensing program to address Android's ongoing infringement, and leading Android smartphone manufacturer HTC has taken a license under this program.
Amazon.com also signed a patent license with Microsoft last year covering its Kindle e-reader, he added.
"Unfortunately, after more than a year of discussions, Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec have so far been unwilling to sign a license, and therefore, we have no other choice but to bring legal action to defend our innovations," Gutierrez said in the blog post.
