ITC Rules the Xbox 360 violates Motorola patents

[MA16v3]

http://ht.ly/1j3GQZ

Patent trolling?

ITC Judge Rules That Xbox 360 Infringes on Motorola Mobility Patents

An International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has ruled that Microsoft violated several patents held by Motorola Mobility when it made its Xbox 360 console. ITC Judge David Shaw said that Microsoft infringed on four of five patents that Motorola filed on its complaint - International Trade Commission, No. 337-752. The patents in the complaint include technology like wireless connections to the Internet and video compression to speed up transmission of data, amongst others.

Motorola Mobility has asked the ITC to bar importation of the infringing devices into the United States. The full commission will review Judge David Shaw's decision and issue a final ruling sometime in August.

Microsoft issued a statement saying that it will ultimately prevail in the case:

"We remain confident the commission will ultimately rule in Microsoft's favor," a company spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Motorola Mobility said it was pleased with the decision by the judge: "Microsoft continues to infringe Motorola Mobility's patent portfolio, and we remain confident in our position," the company said in a statement. "We look forward to the full commission's ruling in August."

Source: Reuters

[CorruptedDragon]

http://ht.ly/1j3GQZ

Patent trolling?

Many of the "patents" are pretty vague. Wonder why they are going after the 360 almost 7 years into it's life?

[michealo]

Not seeing much come out of this

[RedRedSuit]

Probably they filed the complaint quite a while ago.

[mstrbass2000]

they also ruled that apple infringed as well

[CorruptedDragon]

Apparently it's in response to MS filing a patent suit a few months back. Will probably end with both dropping each other's cases which is what motorola wants.

[BettiePage]

they really need to reform all this patent crap... patent goods/inventions. not ideas. patent a description of an idea is crap. produce a product and patent the process. if someone else can produce the same effect using a different process... good for them.

[murphjp]

Serves MS right for putting pressure on android phone producers.

[DaveS1138]

they really need to reform all this patent crap... patent goods/inventions. not ideas. patent a description of an idea is crap. produce a product and patent the process. if someone else can produce the same effect using a different process... good for them.

Then anybody can reverse engineer your product....change one or two steps in the process....and release a cheaper version of your product because they didn't have to pay years worth of R/D.

[Badger3920]

Judge issue an injunction against the sale of xbox 360's in whatever country this case is affecting (heard it briefly on the morning news, didnt catch the name of the country)

[mstrbass2000]

it was germany court but the u.s judge has already halted that before the ruling,so microsoft will still sell its products in germany until the ruling pending case is ruled upon

[DaveS1138]

Sorry. Possibly a stupid question but why does a US judge have any say about the ruling of a German court?

[Indy_aka_Rex]

Seeing as how a US judge has no jurisdiction over Germany, and the German ban has nothing to do with the ITC ruling... X-Box 360 sales are still banned in Germany.

[CorruptedDragon]

Seeing as how a US judge has no jurisdiction over Germany, and the German ban has nothing to do with the ITC ruling... X-Box 360 sales are still banned in Germany.

Apparently, you are incorrect.

A German court has granted Motorola Mobility an injunction against the sale and/or distribution of the Xbox 360 in Germany, as well as copies of Windows 7, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, following a ruling that some of Microsoft's products violate patents that pertain to the H.264 video codec and are held by Motorola.

Were Motorola to enforce this injunction, it would mean that Microsoft would lose the ability to sell its flagship products in Deutschland until the matter of Motorola's patents is settled, which would be a Very Big Deal™. Thing is, though, Motorola is currently prohibited from enforcing the injunction due to a restraining order issued by an American judge in Seattle.

Microsoft argued that Motorola is abusing its "Frand-commitments," which are essentially a pinky swear that a massive company makes to the world when it is in possession of a universally required piece of technology, wherein it commits to providing licenses for said technology at "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" rates. Microsoft says that Motorola's asking price goes beyond fair and reasonable, so the judge issued the restraining order to prevent the injunction from happening until the case can be heard, which is currently scheduled to happen on May 7.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is also appealing the German court's decision, and thanks to the restraining order from the American judge, it'll be able to conduct business as usual during that process. Patent infringement cases like this are all about applying pressure on both sides until one of the companies involved cracks, so we doubt that Motorola ever actually expected that it'd be able to enforce a successful injunction. The fact that it happened at all, however, despite being nullified, adds another layer of trouble and stress to Microsoft's half of the situation.

[MA16v3]

Ruh roh

http://gamepolitics.com/2012/05/22/j...t-ban-xbox-360

Microsoft and Motorola have been at each other’s throats for a while now.

Motorola claims that the Xbox 360 uses “Motorola-developed technology that allows set-top boxes to decode transmissions between its Droid2 and DroidX mobile devices” while Microsoft argues that Motorola refused “to abide by requirements set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association to set reasonable license fees of essential technology.”

Last April, International Trade Commission (ITC) judge David Shaw ruled that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console infringed on four of Motorola’s patents. Today, Judge Shaw has recommended that the ITC ban the import of the 4GB and 250GB Xbox 360 S consoles and prevent further sales with a cease-and-desist order. Further, Microsoft should post a bond equal to 7% of the value of unsold Xbox 360 inventory already in the country.

Motorola wanted the bond to be 100% but Microsoft pointed out that Motorola had done nothing to show that anyone had bought an Xbox 360 in lieu of Droid devices or set-top converters and argued for a bond equal to what it saw as a reasonable license fee for the technology: 2.5%.

Microsoft argued that Judge Shaw’s order did not serve the public interest because it would leave consumers with only two console options: Sony’s and Nintendo’s. Shaw slapped down that argument saying that enforcing intellectual property rights outweighed the economic impact on game console buyers and there was no evidence that Microsoft’s competitors wouldn’t be able to handle the demand.

Ouch.

Judge Shaw’s recommendation will now go to the ITC commissioners for consideration. If the order becomes final, President Barack Obama will have 60 days to review the decision. After that, ITC orders can only be appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Source: Courthouse News Service

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics Contributing Editor Andrew Eisen