Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against Acacia Research Corp on Wednesday for breaking a contract to license various smartphone and mobile computing technologies. The litigation has been filed in the U.S. District Court in New York, but is currently under a seal. There are not a lot of details available, but this follows a number of patent infringement lawsuits brought by Acacia subsidiaries against Microsoft in October in Texas, Delaware and Illinois.
David Howard, Microsoft's deputy general counsel told Reuters:
"Acacia's lawsuits are the worst kind of abusive litigation behavior, attempting to extract payment based on litigation tactics and not the value of its patents."
Acacia is a company frequently referred to as a patent troll. They buy vast collections of patents and make profit from licensing. Its subsidiaries have filed lawsuits against Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and HTC, among others.
Source: Reuters
