Business

Microsoft dials up Google phone gripe

Microsoft, which won a ban last year on importing some phones made by a Google subsidiary, filed a motion yesterday asking the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to enforce the measure.

The US International Trade Commission, which hears high-tech patent complaints, said in 2012 that Google’s Motorola Mobility infringed a Microsoft patent for generating and synchronizing calendar items.

The ban affects all phones with Google’s Android software, Microsoft said.

The filing is the latest salvo in an international smartphone patent war involving a half dozen companies in around 12 countries.

The dispute is a sign that deciding which product infringes a patent is harder now that the world has gone high tech.

Customs may not have the needed expertise to make that determination and perhaps should rely on the ITC, said Deanna Tanner Okun, a former ITC chairman.