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Microsoft wins damages from Motorola on patent licensing
2013-09-05 09:56:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) Microsoft has won the second stage of a landmark patent case against Motorola Mobility over determining licence payments for standards-essential patents. A jury in federal court in Seattle concluded that Motorola had breached its undertakings to license its standards-essential patents on reasonable, non-discriminatory terms, the Financial Times reports. The jury also handed Microsoft USD 15 million in damages, around half of the amount it had claimed. The dispute sprang from Microsoft's attempt to negotiate a licence from Motorola for its patents used in the H.264 video compression and 802.11 Wi-Fi standards. Microsoft claimed that Motorola's suggested royalty level would have cost it USD 4 billion and showed that it was not negotiating in good faith. Motorola argued that the rate was an opening shot in a negotiation, rather than a final demand. In the first stage of the trial in April, Judge James Robart ruled that Microsoft should pay only USD 1.8 million a year for the Motorola patents. That decision was seen as an important precedent for the tech industry in determining how royalties on standards essential patents are set. Motorola said it plans to appeal.
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Category:Telecommunications