U.S. ITC KEPT BUSY; MICROSOFT PATENT CLAIMS SURROUND MOTOROLA

The patent war have taken a switch and the parties to the newly started lawsuit are Microsoft and Motorola Mobility. Recently the U.S. ITC ruled that HTC has been infringing Apple’s U.S. patents and a possible ban is in, if HTC does not play the right cards. However, the new parties to the lawsuit have an even interesting case. The preliminary ruling issued in the case, notes that Motorola Mobility was found violating one of the seven patents detailed in the lawsuit. The patent number in question is is U.S. Patent No. 6,370,566 and it falls in the Microsoft’s intellectual property.

What is this patent all about?

U.S. Patent No. 6,370,566, makes it possible for users to schedule meetings from their mobile devices. One can find a link to the initial determination from today here.

Well, the patent lawsuits are keeping Florian Mueller, of FOSS Patents blog fame busy. He framed a chart explaining more about patent ‘566. just to add in the information counter, he is even busy doing a paid study for Microsoft on FRAND patents.

Talking about the lawsuit, Microsoft is working on persuading the law makers that Motorola Mobility has infringed seven of its mobile patents.

Attributing to David Howard, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, the official statement of Microsoft:

“We are pleased with the ITC’s initial determination finding Motorola violated four claims of a Microsoft patent. As Samsung, HTC, Acer and other companies have recognized, respecting others’ intellectual property through licensing is the right path forward.”

To proceed on the matter, a final determination by the six-member commission is on the cards. Once done with it, the ITC judge would take the staff’s opinions into account in making a final decision. A link to the Motorola Mobility statement was noted in GeekWire, which had the following information on what’s next:

“The final decision in this case, based on the deliberation of the full ITC, is expected by April 20, 2012. The ITC’s final determination ruling would be subject to a 60-day review period by U.S. President Obama. The Company noted that sales outside the U.S. are not within the focus of the ITC.”

Noting the controversies between the two, it was noted that on October 1, 2010, Microsoft had sued Motorola, over alleged infringement of Motorola’s Android smartphones on Microsoft’s patents. However, the claim list fattened on November 9, when Microsoft sued Motorola again over wireless and video coding patents. The latter is a patent, which is used by the Xbox and smartphones.

There were additions to the wireless and video coding patents, as Microsoft claimed that Motorola is charging excessive royalties for its patents. It didn’t take Motorola even one complete day to shoot a countersuit, which was on November 10, 2010. The countersuit claimed that infringement had actually taken place in the Microsoft premises as 16 of its patents were infringed by Microsoft’s PC and server software, Windows Mobile and Xbox products.

Mueller added a shocker that the Motorola mobility and Microsoft dispute is lonely keeping a number of United States and German courts busy. The count noted that more than 50 different patents-in-suit were in dispute between the two. With this, they are the current hot favorites in the patent wars, attracting more judges in the U.S. and Germany, leaving way behind the Apple-Samsung lawsuits.