REDMOND, Wash. — July 30, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. late today filed a patent infringement action with the International Trade Commission (ITC), after making repeated attempts during the past several years to engage Primax Electronics, Ltd in a licensing agreement, and issued the following statement from Horacio Gutierrez, vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing:

“Microsoft has filed an action today with the ITC after making repeated attempts during the past several years to engage in meaningful licensing discussions with Primax. Microsoft has an open intellectual property licensing policy, but in situations such as this, in which a reasonable licensing agreement cannot be reached despite our best efforts, we have no choice but to pursue legal action to protect our innovations. 

To date, more than 20 companies have licensed the U2, Tilt Wheel and Magnifier technologies from Microsoft as part of our successful hardware licensing program. Primax’s practice of using our innovations without taking a patent license is unfair to the many companies that have already licensed our technology, so we are taking action to protect both our partners and our innovations.”