Microsoft Wins?

Motorola Got a Good Kicking from Microsoft

Microsoft is celebrating after seeing off Google-owned Motorola Mobility in a patent legal fight over the H.264 codec. Press reports reveal that the battle involves three patents, 7,310,374; 7,310,375, and 7,310,376, which the company licensed to the Xbox 360, Windows and Windows Phone.

Motorola wanted $4 billion annually, which Microsoft believes is a little on the steep side. It also believes that it violates fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory standards. As such, the company claimed it will write a cheque for $1,000,000 and not a penny more.

US district judge James Robart has issued a 28-page ruling, where he granted Microsoft’s request for a partial summary judgment. The judge ruled many of Motorola’s claims invalid simply because the language in its patents is “not sufficiently articulate”.

According to James Robart, the plaintiffs has provided substantial evidence from various sources, including technical journals and dictionaries, to prove, for example, that some of Motorola’s technologies amounted to general purpose devices which are indistinguishable from the general purpose PC.

Later, a patent blogger Florian Mueller wrote that a rate might finally be specified soon, and it would likely to be in the vicinity of a few hundred thousand dollars annually. This outcome will hinder any attempt from the search giant to screw billions of dollars out of other entities. In addition, it looks like the $12.5 billion it spent on Motorola Mobility’s extensive array of intellectual property might fail to give the company what it hoped.

Actually, getting money out of Microsoft wasn’t the initial plan. Instead, it was more an attempt by the search giant to stop Microsoft and Apple killing off Android with patent actions.