The
long-running Motorola-versus-Microsoft patent struggle came to an end this
week, when a U.S. District Court jury in Seattle awarded Microsoft $14 million
in damages.
According to The Seattle Times, which first reported the decision on
Wednesday, the ruling states that Google-owned Motorola breached its agreement
to provide licenses for certain essential patents used in Microsoft products.
Only
about half of what the software giant initially asked for, the $14 million
verdict includes $11 million for the relocation of a German warehouse, which
became part of a Motorola injunction in the country, and about $3 million in
legal fees for fighting that ban, Reuters said.
Neither
Motorola nor Microsoft immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment,
though Microsoft's deputy general counsel told the Times that this is "a landmark
win" for the company and consumers.
"The
jury's verdict is the latest in a growing list of decisions by regulators and
courts telling Google to stop abusing patents," he said in a statement.
Motorola
told the paper that it plans to appeal the "novel legal issues raised in
this case."
The
case dates back to Nov. 2010, when Microsoft sued Motorola, arguing that
its royalty rates for both wireless networking and video technologies exceed
agreed-upon limits. The suit, filed in the a Seattle federal court, accused
Motorola of breaching a so-called RAND agreement for patents covering the H.264
video codec and various extensions of the 802.11 Wi-Fi technology. The battle
eventually expanded into two separate cases.
Since
Redmond uses Motorola's technology in popular products like the Xbox, Motorola
offered to license certain patents at a rate of 2.25 percent per product sold.
Microsoft, however, argued that the rate was unreasonable and fought back with
a lawsuit.
Earlier
this year, a Seattle judge handed down an opinion outlining how much Microsoft should
pay for Motorola's patented technology, and it wasn't exactly the billions the
Google-owned company wanted. U.S. District Judge James Robart in April
announced that Redmond should pay 0.555 cents for products using advanced video
coding patents (Windows and Xbox), and 3.471 cents for those using a wireless
patent (Xbox).
The
news comes shortly after Microsoft announced that it will purchase Nokia's devices and services business for 3.79
billion Euros (about
$5 billion). Redmond will also shell out another 1.65 billion Euros ($2.18 billion)
to license Nokia's patents for a grand total of 5.44 billion Euros (about $7.2
billion) in cash.
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