Microsoft sues Samsung for unpaid royalties from Android patent agreement

Can I interest you in some litigation to help guide you into the weekend?

Microsoft has revealed that it’s filed a lawsuit against Samsung in the Southern District Court of New York. David Howard, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, explains that the Redmond firm’s goal is to “enforce” a contract that it has with Samsung.

Howard explains that Microsoft and Samsung entered into an agreement in Sept. 2011 that would see Microsoft receive royalties from Samsung for all of the Android phones and tablets that Samsung released as part of a patent cross-licensing deal. Howard goes on to say that Samsung stopped paying these royalties in September 2013. The reason? Samsung apparently felt that Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services division was a breach of the Microsoft-Samsung contract.

Microsoft and Samsung are two extremely large companies, especially in the world of tech, so this lawsuit is a pretty big deal. Samsung hasn’t yet issued a statement on the lawsuit, but Microsoft’s claims against it make Samsung sound kind of rude. Of course, there are two sides to every story, and I’m sure that Samsung has one that it’d like to argue.

Stay tuned and I’ll update you with more details on this case as they become available.

Via Microsoft

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