Microsoft has won a ruling that Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc’s Android phones violate one of its smartphone patents, while Microsoft failed to convince a judge that Motorola has also violated six other patents as well.
US International Trade Commission Judge Theodore Essex said in a notice today that Google Inc which acquired Motorola Mobility, infringed a patent for generating group scheduling and meeting request. ITC has noticed that this was the second violation which determined that android phones are using some licensed features without taking any permission.
“As Samsung, HTC, Acer and other companies have recognized, respecting others’ intellectual property through licensing is the right path forward,” said David Howard, deputy general counsel for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.
Scott Offer of Motorola Mobility General Counsel said the majority of the ruling is prosperous to the Motorola and will provide clarity on what Microsoft owns to avoid potential violation.
Settlement is the Best Way
“Settlement is always the best way and at the end, business disputes are always settled with money.” Mixon said. The patent is among those that cover a Microsoft’s app called ActiveSync, which is mainly licensed through the organization which includes Google & Apple Inc.
This finding by Six-member commission are subject to review, which can even ban imports of products that infringe US patents but Google denied to comment on this issue .
Microsoft also has a case against Barnes & Noble Inc, whose Nook e-reader runs Android.
Smartphone Experience
Microsoft has sought to block US sales of Motorola Mobility’s gadgets which runs on Android operating system including the Atrix and Xoom tablets, Droid X, Droid 2, Devour, Cliq XT, Backflip, Cliq and Charm smartphones.
Microsoft earlier claimed the Motorola Mobility products violated its seven patents which are necessary for the smartphone user experience. They include a patent launched in 1998 for an app that allows people to select file names without being limited to 11 characters; another one issued in 2005 for a technique to update a database for contacts; and a patent issued in 2010 which shows your phone’s battery or signal strength.
When Libertyville, Illinois-based handset maker refused to pay royalties, then Microsoft filed the Motorola Mobility complaint in 2010 .
Xbox Case
Motorola Mobility has its own patent claims against Microsoft in Europe and US. A case at the International Trade Commission targets the Xbox video-gaming system.According to the ITC’s website. Judge Essex who is taking care of this case has scheduled to release his findings on January 23
“Microsoft continues to violate Motorola Mobility’s existing patent portfolio,” Motorola said in its statement today. “Motorola Mobility remains confident in its position and will continue to move forward with its complaints.”
Barnes & Noble
Microsoft’s case against Barnes & Noble has been scheduled before Essex in February next year which involves different patents. Barnes & Noble, the largest US bookstore chain, has accused Microsoft of making wrong use of its patents to get royalties on Android gadgets and has requested the Justice Department of US to investigate whether Microsoft is trying to drive up the cost of Android to push out competition.
Microsoft’s case against Motorola Mobility is limited to some of the handsets and associated software and components Thereof, 337-744, while Motorola Mobility’s case against Microsoft is concerned with Gaming and Entertainment Consoles, 337-752, both US ITC
[…] Essex said in a notice today that Google Inc which acquired Motorola Mobility, infringed […] TechieApps» Tech & Gadgets decision Loses Microsoft Mobility Motorola others over Patent […]
Patent wars and Intellectual property law. Two things I’m really sick of hearing about. Patent law is, in my opinion, a bit more reasonable, and I understand that when you pour money into R&D, you have to be able to get some of that back with patents, but ultimately, it’s depressing to think about how many truly amazing things could no doubt be developed if companies didn’t have to worry about such things
Or how many cheap clones of everything we would have because any company could out-right copy your invention, cut a few corners and sell it much cheaper than you are and not having to spend the R&D money like you did.
What makes you think it would only bring cheap clones? Tons of great things have come about because someone took someone else’s idea and built on top of it. They improved it. It’s not like these patent wars are going on between Apple and Joe’s discount electronic invention hut. I think that if Motorola came up with something cool and put it in their next Razr, and then Samsung took it and said “wow, that’s a pretty cool component, we should add it to these Galaxy S III’s that we’ve been working on,” the end result would be an over-all better product.
Sure, there’d be knock-offs; there always will be. But I also think that the “step-ladder effect” – one company making something, then another company cherry-picking the best parts of it and adding it to what they’re designing, and so on and so forth, could yield some really great things.
Not that it matters, from a business standpoint it obviously wouldn’t work. You can’t poor fifty million dollars into R&D to make something amazing and then just hand it over for free. I get that. Still, when I look at things like this, with Motorola and Microsoft clashing, it just makes me wonder what we’re going to miss out that one of those companies might have made, if they didn’t have to worry about patent suits.
What you are talking about is called “licensing” and it happens all the time. Pour $50 million into R&D and then when someone wants to use it in their product they license the technology from you so that you make money on the R&D (based on your Motorola/Samsung example).
The reason there are so many patent disputes right now in the mobile world is because Android didn’t license hardly anything and now its coming back on them, well on the OEMs that are actually shipping the products.