Microsoft and Google agree patent ceasefire
Microsoft and Google have agreed to end all patent litigation between the two parties.
In a joint statement issued yesterday, September 30, they said they have “agreed to collaborate on certain patent matters and anticipate working together in other areas in the future to benefit our customers”.
Overall, there were 18 patent cases between the parties pending at US and German courts. Under the agreement, all cases will be dismissed. A Google spokesperson confirmed that some of those cases concerned Motorola Mobility.
No settlement fee has been disclosed.
One of the most high-profile disputes involved a row over the payment of royalties for using Motorola’s standard-essential patents (SEPs).
Motorola, which was bought by Google in 2012, had requested Microsoft pay $4 billion in royalties for using SEPs through Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system. Microsoft had said that Motorola’s payment demand had breached its obligation to offer a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) licensing rate.
Microsoft sought a declaratory judgment in 2010 at the US District Court for the District of Washington that Motorola had breached its RAND responsibility.
Judge James Robart, presiding over the 2013 case at the Washington district court, split the hearings into two parts with him and jury ruling on different aspects.
In the first part, Robart ruled that a “reasonable royalty” was about $1.8 million a year. In the second, a jury determined that Motorola had breached RAND licensing commitments concerning the SEPs and was subsequently fined $14.5 million, $3 million of which covered Microsoft’s attorneys’ fees.
Google sold Motorola to Chinese-telecommunications business Lenovo last year, but retained ownership of Motorola’s patent portfolio.
