Judge James Robart of the US district court of Seattle has ruled what is a reasonable rate for Motorola Mobility’s patents.
The ruling means that Microsoft does not have to pay billions of dollars to Motorola Mobility for the use of its ‘standards essential’ patents, which the involve technologies used in the H.264 standard for video compression and the 802.11 standard for wireless connectivity. Microsoft uses those technologies in producing Windows and Xbox products.
The judge ruled that Motorola was entitled to 0.555 cents for each end product sold for use of its H.264 SEPs, placing the upper bound at 16.389 cents per unit. For the 802.11 SEP patents, Robart ruled that 3.471 cents per unit was the appropriate royalty for Xbox products.
That would bring the total Microsoft has to pay for the patents to around $1.5 million per year rather than the billions sought by Motorola Mobility.
“This decision is good for consumers because it ensures patented technology committed to standards remains affordable for everyone,” David Howard, deputy general counsel for Microsoft, said in a statement. Motorola promised to make its patents available other companies “on fair and reasonable terms.”
Earlier judge Robart has set August 26 as the start date for the next phase in the US district court patent trial battle between Microsoft and Motorola Mobility.
The second trial in August would be to decide, based on what Judge Robart has deemed to be a reasonable rate, whether Motorola breached its contract to license its patents on reasonable terms.
The full ruling of judge Robard can be found on the Scrib website.
