Microsoft drops patent hammer on Kyocera

In a complaint (PDF) filed Friday in Seattle federal court, Microsoft claims Kyocera infringes its patents with three of Kyocera's lower-cost Android phones. The accused models include the Duraforce, Hydro, and Brigadier.

All three run the Android operating system and are "ruggedized" cell phones, meaning they include features like waterproofing and thick rubbery exteriors.

Microsoft has long maintained that Android device makers must pay royalties for use of its patents. Most Android device-makers pay a royalty to Microsoft for each phone, and estimates of the Redmond company's patent-licensing revenue ranges up to $2 billion per year.

While most Android makers are paying Microsoft, one notable holdout is Motorola, which continues to fight the patent claims in court. Microsoft and Samsung recently settled a disagreement over their existing patent license.

"Although research and development comes at great cost and risk, Microsoft was founded on innovation, and the company continues to choose the path of the innovator," wrote Microsoft lawyers in the complaint. "But others have a different approach, waiting for innovators like Microsoft to bear the expense of developing new technologies and then incorporating the most successful inventions into their own products—without permission and without paying for the privilege."

Geekwire has a list of the seven patents being used, which include:

• Atomic operations on data structures
• Dynamically variable idle time thread scheduling
• Method and apparatus using multiple sensors in a device with a display
• Combining multiple java class files into a run-time image
• Increasing the level of automation when establishing and managing network connections
• Supplying notifications related to supply and consumption of user context data
• Communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface

None have ever been used in a lawsuit before, the site reports.

"We respect Kyocera but we believe they need to license the patented technology they are using," Microsoft Deputy GC David Howard said in a statement. "We're hopeful this case can be resolved amicably."

Kyocera hasn't yet responded to the claims.