That news comes courtesy of a Dec. 21 Reuters report, which helpfully notes: "Patent lawsuits are frequently filed with the ITC in order to get infringing products banned from importation and in district courts in order to win damages."
Motorola and Microsoft have spent the fall locked in an escalating series of legal battles, which rose to an extra-special level of ire on Nov. 10 when Motorola Mobility (the manufacturer's subsidiary) filed patent-infringement complaints against the software giant with the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Florida and the Western District of Wisconsin.
Motorola accused Microsoft's PC and Server software, Windows Phone software and Xbox products of violating some 16 patents. The action seemed a direct response to Microsoft's Nov. 9 lawsuit, which alleged that Motorola had violated agreements to license at "reasonable rates" patents related to H.264 video compression and wireless LAN.
In that lawsuit, Microsoft argued that Motorola had made such commitments to both the IEEE-SA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association) and ITU (International Telecommunications Union). Microsoft claimed that Motorola wants its patent royalties adjusted to the price of end products such as the Xbox, as opposed to the component software, something it argues is way too arduous to let stand.
Will all this legal action affect the price of your smartphone or Xbox, or even risk their availability? Highly unlikely. But consider that Motorola and Microsoft, in addition to being at each other's throats, have spent 2010 either negotiating or locked in outright legal battles with other major tech companies such as HTC and Apple. However the Motorola and Microsoft battle turns out, trust that 2011 will be filled with more legal action as these companies seek an advantage in their increasingly fierce battle over categories like smartphones.
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