Microsoft, Motorola trial to resume Monday

August 26, 2013

Microsoft and Motorola are expected to begin arguments on Monday in the second part of a court case regarding patent licensing fees. The jury trial in Seattle, one of a number of patent-related battles between major tech companies, will determine if Motorola breached its contract to provide certain technology to Microsoft on fair and reasonable terms. Trouble between the two companies began in 2010 when Motorola asked Microsoft to start paying royalties for Motorola technology contributed to the H.264 video compression standard and 802.11 wireless networking standard. The former has become the de facto standard for streaming video while the latter underlies the Wi-Fi technology used in most gadgets today. When tech companies contribute a patented technology to a standard, it typically does so on the understanding it will license the patent on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, which is abbreviated to “FRAND” in the industry. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047453/microsoft-motorola-trial-to-resume-monday.html#tk.rss_all