Microsoft vs. Google – The GPS Patents

Recently, it was announced that Microsoft is suing GPS device manufacturer, TomTom over GPS patent violations. TomTom runs on the open source Linux operating system and a lot of people believe this is an attempt by Microsoft to assert their perceived intellectual property rights over Linux.

Normally, this news would not be too exciting, but this time it appears as if Microsoft may be up to their old tricks again. It is widely rumored that several netbook manufacturers have plans to ship devices with Google’s Linux-based operating system, Android. If Microsoft is able to scare netbook manufacturers away from shipping devices with Linux then they may be able to maintain Windows’ stranglehold as people migrate to inexpensive mobile laptops.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, said, “netbook” three times today during his presentation at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference.

Note: We have to give credit to Google’s sense of humor. A week before the Microsoft vs. TomTom news broke, Google announced that they would go to any length to fight off patent trolls.