Microsoft sued Motorola Friday claiming that the company's Android-powered phones infringed on nine patents held by the software giant.

According to a statement by Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacia Gutierrez, the alleged infringements centre on the way Motorola's phones synchronize email, calendars, contacts and meetings, and in the way it notifies the user of changes in signal strength and battery power.

Microsoft said it filed the action at the International Trade Commission and the US District Court in Washington.

"We have a responsibility to our customers, partners and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market," Gutierrez said.

"Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones."

Microsoft did not name Google, which makes the Android operating system, as a party to the suit. Earlier this year Microsoft reached a software licensing agreement with another Android phone maker, HTC.

The action came as Microsoft prepares to launch its Windows Phone 7, which it hopes will rival Android and the iPhone in the smartphone market.
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Attrition in Indian IT firms seen easing

Indian IT firms are likely to get a breather from high attrition levels in the coming quarters as effects of pay hikes and stable project pipelines kick in.

The sector, one of the biggest employers in Asia's third-largest economy, has seen firms scramble for skilled employees following a rise in outsourcing demand but has also been hit by increased attrition levels.

While attrition is slightly high in the industry, it will start to slow down in the coming quarters as almost all the companies have finished salary hikes and the effects will start to show from October, L. Ravichandran, president of IT services at Tech Mahindra said.

The IT firms are sending the right message to the employees by boosting project pipelines, which gives a sense of stability, he said at the Reuters Investment Summit on Wednesday. "When people see stability and pipeline, they don't jump."

In June, industry body Nasscom had forecast that wages in the sector, which employs more than 2 million people, could rise 10-20 percent in FY11 and said attrition level as of March was up by 8-10 percentage points over the same period last year.

Companies have pulled out all stops to make their employees feel valued, from providing stock options to morale-boosting initiatives.

HCL Technologies Ltd recently came out with the slogan "Employee first; customer second," indicating the growing importance of employee-retention plans.

Analyst Sandeep Muthangi at brokerage IIFL expects attrition to come down in the next few quarters as frequent job switches by employees have raised wages to unaffordable levels.

"We should stop the wage raises now only, otherwise our costs will become high, our margins will be slim and we will start losing business to China or Philippines. The speed of salary increases have started hurting us already," said Deependra Chumble, hiring manager at Hexaware Technologies Ltd.

The average pay hike in the sector this year was 10-13 percent for offshore employees and 2-3 percent for onsite ones, Anand Rathi Financial Services analyst Naushil Shah said.

Wages at Indian software companies had been rising by 10-15 percent annually before the slowdown.

BRISK HIRING

Indian IT majors like Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro have been recruiting heavily after the global economies started treading the recovery path.

TCS has already raised its hiring target for 2010/11 by 10,000 to 40,000 and Infosys has forecast to hire 6,000 more to an annual hiring projection of 36,000.

"About 250-300 people are joining the company every month. We are going to see continuous hiring," Tech Mahindra's Ravichandran said.

MindTree Ltd's Chief Financial Officer Rostow Ravanan said the company had achieved its FY11 hiring target of 3,500 staff.

"The demand for skilled workforce has picked up quite a bit and the supply is not there as of now. So the attrition levels are high, therefore the premium paid to some of the skills is very high," Hexaware's Chumble said.

Chumble said Hexaware will hire 20 percent more than was planned at the beginning of the fiscal year.

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Microsoft sues Motorola over Android phones

Washington, Oct 2 (IANS) Microsoft Corp has filed a lawsuit against Motorola, saying the smartphone maker had infringed on nine patents in its Android-based devices.

The nine patents that Motorola allegedly violated involve essential smartphone functions, including 'synchronizing e-mail, calendars and contacts; scheduling meetings; and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power', Microsoft said.

Microsoft filed its complaint with the International Trade Commission and in a Washington district court.

CNN cited a Motorola spokeswoman as saying the company had not yet received a copy of the complaint and therefore would not comment. But she said, 'We will vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.'

Motorola profited from 'willful and deliberate' patent infringement, Microsoft alleged, saying that it will 'continue to suffer irreparable harm' if the court does not intervene.

Microsoft's court filing specifically mentioned the Motorola Droid 2 and the Motorola Charm smartphones, but Microsoft claims that the infringements were not limited to those devices.

Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's corporate vice president, said in a statement that his company has 'a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market'.

'Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones,' Gutierrez added.

Android's code is at the heart of another heated patent fight.

Oracle sued Google last month, alleging that Android infringes Java patents Oracle acquired though its Sun Microsystems purchase.