I think what they are probably referring to is the patent tax that is paid for every Android phone: https://gigaom.com/2014/06/16/patents-that-fuel-microsofts-

I think what they are probably referring to is the patent tax that is paid for every Android phone: https://gigaom.com/2014/06/16/patents-that-fuel-microsofts-android-tax-revealed-in-chinese-blog-post/ https://gigaom.com/2014/06/16/patents-that-fuel-microsofts-a... But that does not make Microsoft is not a patent troll[1], since it also produces hardware/software that it is covered by the same patents. Whether patents are any good is a different discussion. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll