Motorola can't seek German microsoft

Seattle Motorola Mobility Holdings can't seek to ban Microsoft's Windows products or Xbox gaming systems from the German market, a US judge presiding over a contract dispute between the two companies ruled. Motorola Mobility, which owns patents related to industry standards for video compression and WiFi, petitioned a German court to ban Microsoft products that comply with those standards. Microsoft asked US District Judge James Robart in Seattle to bar Motorola Mobility taking any further steps in the German case until after a trial can be held on the contract dispute between the two companies. A German court in Mannheim is scheduled to issue a ruling May 2 that might have allowed Motorola Mobility to exclude Microsoft from the German market. Robart ruled in a hearing on Thursday in Seattle that Motorola Mobility can't take any steps to seek such a ban of Windows or Xbox, according to a statement from Microsoft. "Motorola promised to make its patents available to Microsoft and other companies on fair and reasonable terms," Microsoft Deputy General Counsel David Howard said in the statement. The "ruling means Motorola can't prevent Microsoft from selling products until the court decides whether Motorola has lived up to its promise". The US court has to decide whether Microsoft is entitled to a licence that is based on terms that are "reasonable and non-discriminatory", an obligation that is pledged by participants in standard-setting boards, Motorola Mobility said in a statement. If so, then "Microsoft has committed to take a licence under MMI's patents essential to certain standards," Motorola Mobility said. "Our focus from the outset has been to receive fair value for our intellectual property based on Microsoft's use of MMI's patented technology." Microsoft argued that Motorola Mobility failed to abide by an obligation to license its industry-standard patents on fair terms. It filed the breach-of-contract lawsuit in Seattle after Motorola Mobility demanded royalties of 2.25 per cent of the retail price of products incorporating the industry standard. The Redmond, Washington-based company said in a March 30 filing that complying with the Motorola Mobility demand could force it to pay $4 billion a year based on sales of devices including the Xbox gaming system and computers that use Microsoft products, such as the Windows operating system. From gulfnews