Barnes & Noble Urges U.S. to Probe Microsoft on Mobile Patents

Barnes & Noble asked U.S. regulators to investigate whether Microsoft seeks to monopolize the mobile-device market by demanding patent royalties on electronics running on Google’s Android operating system.

“Microsoft is embarking on a campaign of asserting trivial and outmoded patents against manufacturers of Android devices,” Barnes & Noble said in an Oct. 17 letter to Gene Kimmelman, the Justice Department’s chief counsel for competition policy. “Microsoft is attempting to raise its rivals’ costs in order to drive out competition and to deter innovation in mobile devices.” The world’s largest software maker accused Barnes & Noble of infringing five patents and filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, seeking to block imports of the Nook readers. Barnes & Noble made its letters to the Justice Department public in a filing with the commission.