Microsoft said Friday that it has sued Samsung in the hope of settling a contract dispute over the patent royalty payments that the Korean company pays the software giant.
Microsoft Sues Samsung Over Android Patent Royalty Dispute
Samsung stopped paying its patent bills late last year, following Microsoft’s announcement of the Nokia acquisition.
“Today’s legal action is simply to enforce our contract with Samsung,” Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said in a blog post.
Microsoft said that Samsung has been late paying its patent bills since late last year, following Microsoft’s announcement of the Nokia acquisition, and that the two companies have not been able to come to a resolution. Microsoft is asking the court to declare the Microsoft Samsung pact valid and enforceable and rule that Samsung owes Microsoft interest for any late payments. The two parties reached a huge mega-patent deal in 2011.
“After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract,” Howard said.
Samsung, like many other Android phone makers, pays Microsoft a royalty for each Android phone they sell. Evidently, though, the companies aren’t currently seeing eye to eye.
A Samsung representative was not immediately able to comment.
Update: Samsung said in a statement: “We will review the complaint in detail and determine appropriate measures in response.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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