Microsoft files 2nd suit against Motorola in weeks
Microsoft is going after Motorola again, this time over what it says has been Motorola's failure to honor reasonable royalty rates on its patent licensing.
Microsoft on Tuesday filed a new patent-related lawsuit against Motorola, its second against the company in the past six weeks.
The new lawsuit, which was filed earlier today with the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, accuses Motorola of charging too much for royalties on its patent licenses, which Microsoft uses in both the wireless networking and video decoders found in the Xbox.
News of the lawsuit was first reported by Reuters.
A Microsoft spokesperson told CNET:
Microsoft filed an action today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against Motorola, Inc. for breach of Motorola's contractual commitments to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to license identified patents related to wireless and video coding technologies under reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions. Those commitments are designed to benefit all parties that rely upon these standards, and Microsoft has been harmed by Motorola's failure to honor them in recent demand letters seeking royalties from Microsoft.
Microsoft sued Motorola in October, alleging that the company was infringing on its own smartphone-related patents. That move was made ahead of the U.S. launch of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. Devices hit store shelves yesterday.
A full copy of the complaint is embedded below:
MSFT Motorola Complaint