A patent dispute over car navigation technology has been settled by Microsoft Corp for an undisclosed sum.
The world's largest software maker says it has settled a dispute claiming that TomTom NV infringed on patented technology that allowed vehicle computer systems to run more than one application at a time, provide more natural driving directions and access to the internet, in addition to other functions.
In February, Microsoft filed lawsuits in US District Court in Washington and with the International Trade Commission against TomTom NV and its US subsidiary, TomTom Inc.
TomTom filed a countersuit in March against Microsoft in the US District Court in Virginia, saying the software maker's Streets and Trips products for PCs infringed on four TomTom patents.
Under the terms of the five-year settlement Microsoft said TomTom will pay the software maker for use of eight patents.
Microsoft will get coverage for the four TomTom patents without paying anything to the Amsterdam-based company.
The agreement covers past and future US sales of both companies' products.
The deal also requires TomTom to remove some functions from its products within two years, including functionality related to naming, organising and storing file data.
The companies said this allows TomTom to comply with its obligations as a member of the open source software community.
Open source licences vary, but generally require companies that build products with open source software to make all the resulting code available to the community.
Microsoft's proprietary business model bars companies from releasing its patented code free of charge.
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