Microsoft patent chases TomTom

Microsoft issued a copyright infringement suit in US district court and with the US International Trade Commission against Dutch PND maker TomTom, claiming the company has violated eight of Microsoft's patents.

From Microsoft's filing with the USITC, the company says, "The portable navigation computing devices in question run a version of the Linux operating system, which is a general purpose operating system capable of supporting a wide variety of software applications. For example, the Linux operating system on the portable navigation computing devices executes a navigation application that uses the GPS data provided by the GPS receiver to generate driving directions. The Linux operating system used in the personal navigation computing device and/or the software applications supported by the operating system also provide the devices with additional functionality such as file system support for long and short file names, memory management for flash memory commonly used on such devices, and a platform for integrating and controlling various electronic components used with the portable navigation computing devices, such as other components in a vehicle."

The three Microsoft patents the company cites in this passage are the following: #5,579,517 and #5,758,352 -- "Common Name Space for Long and Short Filenames" #6,256,642 -- "Method and System for File System Management Using a Flash-Erasable, Programmable, Read-only Memory"

The other five patents in the federal case are more general in nature, involving the fundamental technology of portable navigation devices. This is reportedly the third time Microsoft has sued TomTom over intellectual property rights, but many are wondering what a suit against a Linux implementer means in the company's overall stance on open source.