Microsoft is not happy with Samsung and is taking them to court over Android patent royalties. The Redmond-based company claims that Samsung has violated its contract with Microsoft and as a result, Microsoft is taking them to court to battle it out.
This case, if it makes it to trial, will be a monumental fight for Samsung and Microsoft as they both have huge bank accounts and both must believe that they are in the right for it to have gone this far. Further, for Microsoft, they have been signing patent agreements with nearly everyone and if they were to lose this case, it would strip out a large revenue stream for patent royalties on Android-based devices.
Microsoft said in their post about the complaint:
After becoming the leading player in the worldwide smartphone market, Samsung decided late last year to stop complying with its agreement with Microsoft. In September 2013, after Microsoft announced it was acquiring the Nokia Devices and Services business, Samsung began using the acquisition as an excuse to breach its contract.
While Samsung will certainly publish a rebuttal to this accusation, it"s a strong statement from Microsoft considering that Samsung makes quite a few Windows products as well. What sparked the complaint from Microsoft is that Samsung did in fact make its royalty payment, but that it was late, and they are refusing to pay the interest. They are also threatening to breach the agreement again.
This letter is only the start of a very long fight, if Samsung does go to trial against Microsoft, we likely won"t have a ruling on whether or not Samsung did breach the contract for many months, perhaps even years.
Source: Microsoft | Full Complaint (PDF)
The headline of this story and small parts of its content have been updated after we received the official complaint filed by Microsoft