Microsoft on Friday sued Motorola for patent infringement relating to the company's Android-based smartphones.

Microsoft filed its complaint with the International Trade Commission and in a Washington state district court. At issue are nine patents that deal with, among others, sending and receiving e-mail on smartphones, managing calendars and contacts, and managing a phone's memory.

"Microsoft innovations at issue in this case help make smartphones 'smart,'" Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, wrote in a blog post. "Indeed, our patents relate to key features that users have come to expect from every smartphone."

Gutierrez pointed to functionality that lets users send and receive e-mail on-the-go and get messages from multiple services in real-time. "Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync, a proprietary technology that we developed, makes this possible," he wrote.

Microsoft technology, he continued also "enables people to see their calendar and e-mail contacts on their phone, and to manage their calendar and contacts from whatever device they are using." Smartphones must also handle multiple apps at once, and manage memory efficiently, Gutierrez said.

"Microsoft's patented technologies tackle all of these challenges," he said.

Microsoft has been working on this technology for 30 years, he said. "It is imperative that companies address IP issues related to the software that makes possible this new class of devices. Our action today merely seeks to ensure respect for our intellectual property rights infringed by Android devices; and judging by the recent actions by Apple and Oracle, we are not alone in this respect."

Apple sued HTC in March for patent infringement, with some of the claims addressing the Android operating system. In August, Oracle sued Google over Android Java use.

"Motorola has not received a copy of the complaint, therefore we cannot comment at this point," Motorola said in a statement. "Motorola has a leading intellectual property portfolio, one of the strongest in the industry. The company will vigorously defend itself in this matter."