Microsoft files suit against Acacia over smartphone and mobile computing patents

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.

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Source: Reuters

Mark Guim
Former Video Editor

Mark Guim was formerly a Video Editor at Windows Central. He switched to Windows because the MacBook Pro isn't Pro enough. You can follow him on Twitter at @markguim.