Sharp, Belkin & Dynabook Owner Seething Over Microsoft Legal Action

Foxconn Technology CEO billionaire Terry Gou is seething after Microsoft initiated legal action against his Company in an attempt to extract license revenue from Android smartphones.

Foxconn own Sharp and Belkin and last year acquired the Toshiba brand name for PC’s.

Foxconn CEO Centre at Taipai Press Conference.

Microsoft is claiming in lodged court documents that it’s merely trying to enforce contractual commitments from a 2013 agreement with Hon Hai.

“Microsoft takes its own contractual commitments seriously and we expect other companies to do the same,” the software maker said in an emailed statement after Gou posted comments about the case on Facebook.

Gou was so angry that he called a press conference last night accusing the US software giant of a personal attack against him and his company.

Foxconn whose listed arm Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. assembles the iPhone proceeded to rip Microsoft apart for a “wrongful” attempt to extract royalties on Android software by going after FIH Mobile Ltd a company that makes phones for Huawei Technologies Co., Xiaomi Corp. and other vendors.

According to Bloomberg Gou is no stranger to patent lawsuits.

In 2017, Qualcomm sued to force contract manufacturers such as Foxconn to pay royalties on patents used in iPhones in a case pending in San Diego.

The billionaire, however, has kept a low-profile throughout what is in essence an Apple Vs Qualcomm court case.

Gou told journalists that “Microsoft is falling behind in the smartphone era faced with the rise of Android so now it is adopting a bad strategy,” by going after Foxconn.

“I really sympathize with them.” he said.

Microsoft filed the complaint against Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile Ltd in the Northern District of California on Friday. It is claiming unpaid royalties for patents used in devices for clients including a top Chinese smartphone vendor.

Gou told the impromptu news conference in Taipei that “patent infringement” is not an issue for his company, which “will suffer almost no any loss” as a result of the lawsuit.

Foxconn “has never paid any patent fees to Microsoft,” Gou said.

FIH could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement, Microsoft said the legal action was related to the royalty reporting and audit terms of a contract it signed with Foxconn parent Hon Hai in 2013.