Motorola and Microsoft IP Complaints Continue

Motorola filed suit against Microsoft in Nov. 2010, accusing the company of infringing on a variety of patents and continuing ongoing litigation between the two companies. Separately, Microsoft filed a claim alleging Motorola has charged excessive royalties for its intellectual property (IP). The lawsuits—part of a growing number IP disputes among software companies, smartphone manufacturers, and telecommunication carriers—stem from Microsoft’s Oct. 2010 claim that Motorola’s Android-based smartphones infringe on nine of its patents.

Standards and RAND

Microsoft’s new complaint accuses Motorola of charging too much for royalties on Motorola’s IP, which is used in wireless networking and video decoders found in the Xbox. Microsoft claims that Motorola is breaching contractual commitments to standards bodies, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the International Telecommunications Union, that require IP relating to standards be licensed under reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) terms and conditions.