Microsoft wins case to prevent Motorola injunction

Motorola is demanding massive royalties from Microsoft for using 50 of its patents used in the H.264 video standard. Motorola is demanding up to $22.50 on every midrange laptop using the video standard while Microsoft is paying only 2c to a group of 29 companies for a pool of 2,300 patents, and have taken Microsoft to court for this.

Microsoft is therefore it seems pretty fairly accusing Motorola of abuse of the Fair and Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory licensing of essential patents, and has today won a ruling by a Seattle judge preventing Motorola from requesting an injunction against Microsoft products being shipped until the court has decided whether Motorola is indeed abusing the FRAND patent system.

“Motorola promised to make its patents available to Microsoft and other companies on fair and reasonable terms,” Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said in a statement. “Today’s ruling means Motorola can’t prevent Microsoft from selling products until the court decides whether Motorola has lived up to its promise.”

Microsoft is expecting a similar ruling in Germany soon.

While Microsoft has always been a proponent of intellectual property protection, they have also always been eager to find a reasonable licensed settlement rather than litigate or use patents to restrict competition. It seems soon the court may impose the same rules on Motorola, which would certainly reduce the extortion value of Motorola to Google, who paid $12 billion for the failing company.

Via AllthingsD.com