Microsoft has successfully made a move that is going to hurt Motorola in a big way in the US. The US International Trade Commission has ruled in favor of Microsoft and has banned the import of Motorola Mobility Android devices until Motorola changes the software so that it won’t be infringing on the Microsoft patents or it can also buy a license from Microsoft so that it can continue selling the said devices.
The ITC’s ruling follows a December court ruling that states Motorola’s products, namely, the Atrix, Droid and Xoom smartphones, infringed on a Microsoft patent that is related to Exchange ActiveSync technology.
Microsoft, as expected, was delighted with the ruling. According to a statement made by one of Microsoft’s lawyers, the company hopes that Motorola will join a huge majority of Android device manufacturers selling smartphones in the US “by taking a license to our patents.” Motorola is the only remaining major Android device manufacturer that doesn’t have a patent licensing deal with Microsoft. Last month, Microsoft finally struck a deal with Barnes & Noble. According to estimates made by Microsoft, the Android licenses now covers almost seventy percent of all Android device in the United States.
The ITC decision comes at a very awkward time since just recently, the ITC has also judged that Microsoft has infringed on four of Motorola’s patents. Motorola, this time, has managed to successfully ban the sales of Windows 7 PCs and the Xbox 360 in Germany based on these patent infringement charges.
Originally posted on May 21, 2012 @ 12:24 pm
