Microsoft wins patent trial against Motorola

PanARMENIAN.Net - Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday, Sept 4, a jury decided in its favor in the second of two trials in federal court in Seattle concerning Motorola Mobility's licensing of so-called standard, essential patents used in Microsoft products, according to Reuters.

The jury agreed with Microsoft's claim that phone maker Motorola, owned by Google Inc, broke agreements with standard-setting bodies to license certain patents at a fair and reasonable rate, Microsoft said.

The jury awarded Microsoft about $14 million in damages, Microsoft said, about half what the company had asked for. That consisted of $11 million for the costs of relocating a warehouse in Germany due to an injunction on certain Microsoft products brought by Motorola in that country, and about $3 million in legal fees for fighting that injunction.

"This is a landmark win for all who want products that are affordable and work well together," Microsoft said in a statement.

A Motorola spokesman indicated the company would appeal. "We're disappointed in this outcome, but look forward to an appeal of the new legal issues raised in this case," said William Moss at Motorola. "In the meantime, we'll focus on building great products that people love."

The case revolves around patents owned by Motorola on the 802.11 wireless technology standard and the H.264 video compression. These technologies are used in numerous devices, including Microsoft’s Xbox game consoles. It is common business practice to pay patent owners a licensing fee in order to use the said patents, but it seems that the two tech giants couldn’t see eye to eye on just how much money is really involved, SlashGear says.

In 2010, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Motorola, claiming that the now Google-owned company is charging excessive licensing fees that could reach up to $4 billion per year. While Microsoft has no qualms about paying royalty fees, it could not agree to Motorola’s demand to be paid 2.25 percent of profits from Microsoft’s products using the said patents.

Microsoft earned a small victory in April, when a federal judge determined that the company need only pay $1.8 million a year to Motorola instead of billions. Once again, Microsoft gained a win with today’s verdict, but might not be fully what the company wanted, as it initially demanded an amount of $29 million in damages. Still, Microsoft called it a landmark victory against technology rival Google.