ITC to Barnes & Noble: Microsoft has Shown No Signs of Wrongdoing

It’s the classic tale. Android meets OEMs. OEMs get Android for free. Then Microsoft comes in to break up all the free love and sue each hardware vendors using Android for patent infringement as Google never bothered to license anyone’s intellectual property. Microsoft’s deal was simple: ‘Cut us in with a license fee on each device sold, and we’ll leave you alone’. While many companies decided to take the deal Barnes & Noble decided to go on the offensive and file claims against Microsoft with the ITC alleging the folks in Redmond were misusing their patents. TechDirt’s got the quote that says it all.

“The OUII basically concluded that even if all of what Barnes & Noble said about Microsoft’s use of patents against Android was accurate, it would fall far short of the legal requirements for a patent misuse defense. For example, Barnes & Noble claimed that Microsoft asked for excessively high patent license fees, but the OUII quoted passages from U.S. law (statutory as well as case law) that clearly said that patent law doesn’t require a patent holder to grant a license on any terms.”

TechDirt’s Florian Mueller

We’ll spare you the legal details except to say that you don’t need a degree in Law nor intelligence in abundance to realize Barnes & Noble’s week just got a whole lot more stressful.

Source TechDirt