Microsoft is facing a lawsuit from SurfCast, an operating system technology designer who filed a complaint yesterday in the U.S. District Court in Maine. The filing says that Microsoft infringes one its four patents, by "making, using, selling, and offering to sell devices and software products" covered by SurfCast"s patent. This includes mobile devices using Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8, as well as Windows 8/RT devices, including the newly launched Surface tablet. The company has also added that Microsoft is contributing to infringement by encouraging developers to make apps tiles.
SurfCast claims that Microsoft has both directly and indirectly infringed on its patent and wants Microsoft to "account for and pay to SurfCast all damages caused to SurfCast by reason of Microsoft"s patent infringement". On SurfCast"s website the company says that they designed the "new concept" and filed for the patent related to "Tiles" in October 2000, with it being issued to them in April 2004. In the complaint SurfCast claims that Microsoft had knowledge of the 403 patent at least as early as April 21, 2009.
Source: Priorssmart Image: Microsoft