Another day at the court for Microsoft, it appears. The software titan has just been sued once again, this time for allegedly using some Excel patents without proper authorization.
The battles over patents (particularly software patents) have increasingly embroiled the Redmond-based technology titan in these past few years. While the company is busy licensing its Android and Chrome OS portfolio to hardware makers, it was very recently sued over Skype patents.
And this is alongside the court dates it received for a claim over the Live Tiles it used in its operating systems. That hearing is scheduled for later this year.
And now, a new report reveals that a Minnesota-based software company that goes by the name of MasterMine Software has filed a lawsuit against the technology titan seeking financial compensation for violating a number of software patents that it owns.
Chances are that Microsoft may well have to pay damages to MasterMine.
According to Rob Machalek, the president of MasterMine:
“We very clearly preceded Microsoft. Microsoft didn’t even have a product on the [customer relationship management] market until five years after we were out with our product.”
Microsoft Excel, Dynamics CRM and other Office solutions are said to be using, without authorization, some of the patents that MasterMine owns. And since Microsoft has been selling these software products for a fair while now, it may have to pay compensation for the years it sold them.
No statement from Microsoft on this new development, but expect more from the company in this regard in the comings months as the case proceeds.
