ITC Sides with Microsoft in its Patent Claim dispute with Motorola

March 28th, 2013 the International Trade Commission through the  Administrative Law Judge David P. Shaw announced decision  that Microsoft was not in violation of Motorola's wireless connectivity patent, No. 6,069,896. This decision may soon end the long, on-going battle between Microsoft Corp. and Motorola Mobility, Inc. (owned by Google) over the Xbox 360 gaming console.

Motorola, as unsatisfied with the decision, still has a chance to convince the ITC to alter the decision by submitting a response. However, the present decision will stand unless the ITC modifies it by July of this year.

In the lawsuit Motorola has been seeking an import ban on the Xbox due to the alleged patent infringement by Microsoft. The Xbox is a video game console released by Microsoft on November 15, 2001. This video game represents Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market.

Microsoft position was that Motorola's patents fall into the area of licensing rules called "FRAND" or "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms." FRAND forces businesses with patents to license certain technologies if they constitute a general standard in a particular industry. In the lawsuit Microsoft did not deny that it used technology patented by Motorola and took the position that Motorola wasn't allowing Microsoft to license the technology at the reasonable rates set out by FRAND. Motorola was insisting that Microsoft pay a 2.25 percent royalty on every Xbox 360 sold, at a cost of approximately $4 billion per year.

The original lawsuit was filed with the International Trade Commission in November of 2010.


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