Finally! Over these past few years we've seen one court case after another between Apple and Microsoft vs. Android. However, up until today these battles have been proxy wars where the target is always an Android manufacturer (ie, Apple Vs. Samsung, Microsoft vs. Motorola).
In german court today Microsoft has officially added Google (parent of Motorola) on to an existing lawsuit claiming patent infringement. For a variety of reasons both Apple and Microsoft have long held off attacking Google directly. However, if you look at all the infringement claims floating around - the overwhelming majority are related to UI elements that Google stole to quickly create the Android operating system (ruberbanding from Apple, Map elements from Microsoft).
Florian Mueller with FOSS Patents explains that this particular dispute has to do with Google's use of geo-tagging built in to it's maps application. This claim comes after patent disputes already awarded Microsoft wins over Motorola for other pieces of Android the court has ruled to be stolen including Android's SMS system and virtual keyboard.
It's painfully clear at this point that Android is in fact a completely stolen operating system. Google was behind the curve in mobile and was willing to lift as much as possible from other players to catch up. It's nice to see the Google/Motorola merger has finally given rise to a claim specifically including Google. I'm hopeful that Apple will eventually follow suit.
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