Poland based SurfCast has sued Microsoft accusing it of patent infringement related to Windows 8 tiling feature.
 
"We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time," Ovid Santoro, CEO of SurfCast, said in a statement on the company's Website. "Microsoft’s Live Tiles are the centerpiece of Microsoft’s new Operating Systems and are covered by our patent."
 
According eWeek, SurfCast alleges that Microsoft infringes on its U.S. Patent No. 6,724,403 dating back to the 1990s for the "tiling" concepts used in the new Windows 8 operating system that is now being used in PCs, Surface tablets, laptops and smartphones.
 
In a statement, Microsoft said it was “confident” it would prove in court that SurfCast's claims are without merit and that Microsoft has created a “unique user experience.”
 
The 10-page lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Maine, says that the patent, called “System and Method For Simultaneous Display of Multiple Information Sources,” was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office April 20, 2004, to Santoro and co-inventor, Klaus Lagermann. Both men assigned their rights to the patent to SurfCast, according to the lawsuit.