Microsoft is set to add Google as a defendant in Germany, in one of its patent actions against Google's phone maker - Motorola Mobility. It is the first time that Google and Microsoft have come into direct legal conflict over Android.

Redmond claims that Google's Android infringes its software patents but so far has pursued handset makers rather than Google itself for payment of royalties. Motorola, which Google bought this year, is fighting a range of patent issues with Microsoft in courts in the United States and Germany and refused to settle with Microsoft.

Microsoft told a Munich court that it plans to add Google as a defendant in a case in which it claims a mapping feature on Motorola phones infringes one of its patents. Google has indicated that it will fight the move.

The patent which is being fought over defines a method for a mobile device to obtain a map from one database, call up resource information such as the location of a hotel from a second database, and overlay the two sets of data.