By: Sharon Urias, Esq.
International Trade Commission (ITC) Judge David Shaw sided with Microsoft in its battle with Motorola Mobility, Inc., over the Xbox 360 gaming console. The two companies have been battling for several years over whether or not Microsoft violated Motorola’s wireless connectivity patent in the Xbox video game console.
Although the ITC ruled last April the Xbox did violate several patents Motorola held for video decoding, Wi-Fi connections, and console-to-accessory connections, and a German court in May of last year prohibited the sale of Xbox consoles in that country, Judge Shaw disagreed and sided with Microsoft, ruling the Xbox 360 does not violate Motorola’s patents.
Motorola filed its original lawsuit against Microsoft with the ITC in November of 2010 claiming Microsoft’s Xbox violated five of its patents. Motorola wanted Microsoft to pay a royalty fee of 2.25 percent on every Xbox sold, a fee that would cost the Seattle tech company about $4 billion a year.
Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel David Howard released the following statement after the ruling: “We are pleased with the Administrative Law Judge’s finding that Microsoft did not violate Motorola’s patent and are confident that this determination will be affirmed by the Commission.”
As part of the decision, Google – Motorola is a subsidiary of Google – is allowed to call on the commission to overrule the judge’s findings. The ITC, after reviewing Judge Shaw’s decision, will make its final decision on the case in July.
Google obviously was not pleased with the ITC judge’s decision . Matt Kallman, a Google spokesman, said in a statement, “We are disappointed with today’s determination and look forward to the full Commission’s review.”
Source found here.
