Microsoft has sued Motorola over its Android-based smart phones, which it claims nicked some of its idea. Motorola is disputing the claims but the lawsuit comes as Microsoft is preparing to launch its Windows Mobile 7 operating system.

The suit filed in the International Trade Commission and the federal court in the Western District of Washington claims Motorola nicked patents related to “synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.

Similar suits have been flying in the Android market. Motorola was sued by Blackberry maker RIM. Meanwhile Apple has sued Nokia, and HTC. Oracle has sued Google (over Java).

Market research firm Gartner has claimed that Nokia’s open source Symbian OS will hold a 40.1 percent of the mobile operating system market share at the end of 2010. Google’s Android will have 17.7 percent, RIM’s BlackBerry with 17.5 percent, Apple’s iOS with 15.4 percent and Windows Mobile from Microsoft with 4.7 percent.