A German judge today granted Motorola an injunction against the Xbox 360 and Windows 7 in its patent battle with Microsoft.
According to patent blogger Florian Mueller, Judge Dr. Holger Kircher of the Mannheim Regional Court awarded Motorola the right to stop the further distribution of Windows 7, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and the Xbox in Germany thanks to two particular patents. That includes one for "adaptive motion compensation using a plurality of motion compensators" and another for "adaptive compression of digital video data."
But as Mueller pointed out, Motorola still has a tough battle ahead if it actually wants to see those Microsoft products pulled from store shelves.
If it wants to enforce the injunction right away, Motorola will have to pay a bond, or insurance, of at least 60 million Euros to cover itself during the inevitable appeals process. If Motorola loses down the line, those funds will go to Microsoft for the losses it suffered while its products were off the market.
Further complicating matters, the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court could suspend enforcement of the injunction, while a U.S. district court in Seattle has stepped in to the issue, Mueller wrote.Earlier this month, the Seattle court approved Microsoft's request to temporarily prevent Motorola from blocking sales of its products in Germany. U.S. District Judge James Robart didn't restrict what the Manheim court can do regarding the patent dispute. But his ruling means that Motorola can't enforce the Germany injunction until the U.S. case is resolved. A hearing on that case is scheduled for May 7, Mueller said.
In a statement, Motorola said it was "pleased" by the decision. "As a path forward, we remain open to resolving this matter. Fair compensation is all that we have been seeking for our intellectual property," according to a spokeswoman.
Microsoft, meanwhile, pointed out that "this is one step in a long process, and we are confident that Motorola will eventually be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms for the benefit of consumers who enjoy video on the Web."
"Motorola is prohibited from acting on today's decision, and our business in Germany will continue as usual while we appeal this decision and pursue the fundamental issue of Motorola's broken promise," the company continued.
At issue is something known as FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing obligations, which are intended to keep major corporations in check and avoid abusive patent-related behavior. Basically, if a company holds a patent on a technology that is essential to a particular industry, they should make every effort to license that technology, even to major rivals.
Motorola has been accused of making outlandish demands on FRAND-related patents. Bloomberg reported recently, for example, that Motorola demanded $4 billion per year in royalty payments from Microsoft related to its Xbox console.
As a result, the European Commission last month opened a patent abuse investigation into Motorola.
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