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Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft

By | November 10, 2010, 7:01pm PST

On November 9, Microsoft filed its second patent suit in less than two months against Motorola. On November 10, Motorola fired back with its own patent suit against Microsoft.

Motorola subsidiary Motorola Mobility filed complaints against Microsoft in U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Florida and the Western District of Wisconsin, claiming infringement of 16 of its patents by Microsoft’s PC and server software, Windows Mobile and Xbox products.

From Motorola’s November 10 press release:

“The Motorola patents directed to PC and Server software relate to Windows OS, digital video coding, email technology including Exchange, Messenger and Outlook, Windows Live instant messaging and object oriented software architecture. The Motorola patents directed to Windows mobile software relate to Windows Marketplace, Bing maps and object oriented software architecture. The Motorola patents directed to Xbox relate to digital video coding, WiFi technology, and graphical passwords. Motorola Mobility has requested that Microsoft cease using Motorola’s patented technology and provide compensation for Microsoft’s past infringement.”

Microsoft sued Motorola on October 1 over alleged infringement of Motorola’s Android smartphones on Microsoft’s patents. On November 9, Microsoft sued Motorola again over wireless and video coding patents that are used by the Xbox and smartphones. In the latter case, Microsoft claimed that Motorola is charging excessive royalties for its patents.

I asked Microsoft officials if they have any statement on the new Motorola patent suit. Here’s the reply:

“We are still reviewing Motorola’s filing, which we just received,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing. “This move is typical of the litigation process and we are not surprised. We remain confident in our position and will continue to move forward with the complaints we initiated against Motorola in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and with the International Trade Commission (ITC).”

Update: Patent expert Florian Mueller has a list of the patents over which Motorola is suing Microsoft.

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Patent, Microsoft Corp., Motorola Inc., Motorola Mobility, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
dsfwrryd74-24353636458548791193357148816734 Updated - 10th Nov
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Winners
chriswalshie 10th Nov 2010
And the winners are?

The lawyers.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
illegaloperation Updated - 10th Nov 2010
@chriswalshie
and Microsoft.

That's what you get for using software without patent's protection.

I wouldn't be surprise that Android infringe tons of patents and the same is probably true of Windows Phone 7. The different is that Microsoft provide patent protection. That is, if Windows Phone 7 does infringe some patents, it's Microsoft not OEMs that gets drag to court.
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Microsoft is like the mafia
gjafg 10th Nov 2010
This is just a protection money racket.

Microsoft claims it owns patents over syncing email, and contextual menus. It is completely frivolous stuff.

Microsoft has only 2 aims: To make the OEMs pay protection money, or to force them to make Windows Phones (at the moment Motorola has no interest in getting on board Microsoft's failed mobile bandwagon).
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
itguy08 11th Nov 2010
@gyepera

You got that right. It's interesting that Motorola is the only major phone manufacturer to "JUST SAY NO TO WIN PHONE 7" and the only one to get sued.....
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
DonRupertBitByte 11th Nov 2010
@day2die

The industry was doing just fine before software patents were fully enabled in 1998. While it doesn't appear that software patents will disappear in the USA anytime soon, one thing that all parties agree on (including Microsoft) is that business method patents need to go and that pure patent trolls are abusing the system making everything artificially more expensive.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
gorians Updated - 7th Aug
you provide a source saying Google purchased a ATV from youth to kill somebody that you career from any company website is the best buy if you license
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Hopefully us in the long run!
Auna 10th Nov 2010
@chriswalshie
I hope a judge decides that the disputed technologies are so common and have so much contribution from multiple sources that it is not possible for one company to have an exclusive right to them. More competition and lower prices, I say.
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And where did Microsoft "learn" to use the law as an attack dog?
Rick S._z 11th Nov 2010
Bill Gates, father of the Microsoft founder, has been involved in "unsavory" things for a long time. (Jack Abramoff, the notorious lobbyist, was one of his firms firm's biggest stars.)

IMO, Bill Gates learned to fight dirty at his father's feet, as a child. And he's been fighting dirty ever since.
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They're a dirty monopoly
ahh so 11th Nov 2010
They've managed scare the OEMs into keeping Linux off the radar for quite awhile now. Nothing new, there.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
Knowles2 Updated - 20th Nov 2010
@chriswalshie The only problem is that what Microsoft an other software companies want to replace it with, patent protection systems which protect there stuff but not new entrants into the market an make it much more expensive to obtain patents.
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Good to see Motorola put up a fight against Microsoft
gjafg 10th Nov 2010
Microsoft has been going around suing companies that use open-source software.

Microsoft sued TomTom (for using Linux). It sued HTC, Motorola, Asus and Acer for using Android. It was even financing SCO's suit against Linux vendors.

It's good to see Motorola now put up a fight against these frivolous Microsoft lawsuits, rather than rolling over and paying Microsoft its demanded fee.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
illegaloperation 10th Nov 2010
@gyepera
Microsoft, HTC, Motorola, etc. all have the right to protect their patents and if that means dragging things to court, so be it.
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Well then they'll just have to build a bigger legal department
ahh so 11th Nov 2010
...and have M$ be fully controlled by lawyers. Let their dry rot, begin!
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
ShadowGIATL 10th Nov 2010
@gyepera Microsoft sued TomTom (for using Linux). It sued HTC, Motorola, Asus and Acer for using Android. It was even financing SCO's suit against Linux vendors.
They didn't sue because they were using Linux actually, they sued for using a version of FAT. As for funding SCO's suit against Linux vendors, you should do some research. Microsoft sold what is now SCO the code for Xenix, which was a UNIX like OS Microsoft developed before Windows. Yes, that is correct, Microsoft was a UNIX developer before they went to Windows, and yes, they contributed code that ended up in Linux. Most of that code has been removed, or just isn't used by most modern distros, but that code does still exist in some.
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MS sued TomTom for use of the FAT file system
wackoae 10th Nov 2010
@ShadowGIATL Contrary to popular believe, TomTom was sued for using the FAT file system. Linux was just the OS they used to access the data.

On Android side, unfortunately for all Android distributors, Google itself validated 100% of MS claims when it purchased a license to cover the NexusOne. That single fact makes it virtually impossible for any OEM (that distributes the Android OS) to defend themselves ....
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
kirovs@... 11th Nov 2010
@wackoae
Can you provide a source saying Google purchased a license (and for what)? I was not able to validate your claim.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
i2fun@... 12th Nov 2010
@wackoae
You been smoking wacky tobaccy again wackoae! Here's the license Google paid for from Microsoft. It has nothing to do with Linux, except for MS's "Active Sync" for Android!
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/feb09/02-09statement.mspx
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
herry.k Updated - 10th Nov 2010
@gyepera

Wrong, Microsoft sued TomTom for using FAT not Linux.
As far as I know they both settled.
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Sad to see such massive desperation gushing out of motorola from every pore
Johnny Vegas 10th Nov 2010
What a laughable shotgun money sink this will be for them. Their board must be going ballistic at this inept, incompetent, fiduciary irresponsibility from their officers. They had better step up and make some heads roll before this takes their stock price back into the $4 per share range. The facts are not on their side. The rise of WP from HTC, Samsung, LG, Dell, Sony Ericsson, etc. has clearly got them in a panic. The thing to do when great opportunities come along is figure out how to participate. Clearly they could be a leader and make a ton of cash in the process if they built some windows phones. Put your brain dead heads out of your *sses moto. You are on course to repeat all your post razor mistakes and throw all your hard earned market share away.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
nuno@... Updated - 11th Nov 2010
@Johnny Vegas

I understand that it's your job to post such comments, but c'mon...! You can't be THAT obvious.

Regarding WP: Nobody wants to buy phones with Windows Phone. Windows Phone is inferior when compared to Android, wich runs on top of Linux. Imagine that: the kernel that powers virtually every supercomputer on earth is powering your Android phone. Imagine the possibilities.

By contrast Windows Phone is the son of Windows Mobile/Windows CE. Long time ago MS could sell crap like CE. People know better nowadays, thankgod.

MS is making a few phones because most companies don't want a court battle. If only one of the big guns aim for MS, MS will have to retreat, or risk loosing their [shaky] software patents.

Mark my words: this will be settled off court and the terms will never be disclosed (because MS will prefer to pay Motorola a few millions more than to admit defeat in a patent case).
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
bigpicture 11th Nov 2010
@Johnny Vegas Are you on the MS payroll? Or are you just plain stupid. MS is a bully always was always will be. They are not an innovator, they are a parasite on the back of progress. They sued Tom Tom, but that is a European company, and all they have to do is talk to the EU Anti Trust branch, and they would rip some more billions out of MS. MS can't put the EU in their pocket like they did the good old US government, so they can't take the bullying threatening posture there.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
riverab@... 11th Nov 2010
I have a question. If Motorola knew that MS was using some of their patents illegally, and now they use these to place a counter suit against MS, could a court just say too bad to Motorolla? Could the court say, you knew 3 months or 1 year ago that they were using your patents and you didn't say anything. Your patents are null and void. I was under the impression that as soon as a company finds out their patents are being infringed upon that they must defend right away or lose that patent.

Thanks for the non-legal answers.
Bert
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
kirovs@... 11th Nov 2010
@riverab@...
Same goes for MS. If we follow your logic, anyone who was not sued by MS is in the clear.
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Go Moto Go!!!!!!!
itguy08 11th Nov 2010
You keep telling MS to stick it where the sun don't shine.....

One can only wish Motorola wins and MS products have to be modified or temporarily stop being sold!!!!!!
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
statuskwo5 11th Nov 2010
@itguy08 What if opposite happens?
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
windozefreak 11th Nov 2010
@itguy08 Dream on! Wait! This won't happen, even, in your wildest dream. Motorola will probably wish it never filed this counter suit, before it is all said and done.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
nuno@... 11th Nov 2010
@windozefreak
No. This will end like the OTHERS ended:
"Undisclosed off court settlement"

In which MS pays the other party a few millions and let's everybody think that MS received some money.

Everybody wins:
- MS keeps it's software patents and can bully the small guys easier
- Motorola receives some money to manufacture a Windows Phone AND their competition thinks that MS is a threat and that may slow them down.

Classic win-win.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
voodoochicken 11th Nov 2010
sounds awfully familiar.. sco anyone? anyone? whatever is not windows is somehow infringing windows patents? hmm.. microsoft, even though its impressive sales of windows 7, in everything that is not its os seems to be loosing ground: starting with zune, then windows mobile, now they claim that 'we are not loosing with the new windows mobile mp7 even tough all the other systems sold 200k units in the first day and we were not able to sell at least 50k, but that was to be expected', their 'kin', silverlight, the less than impressive azure and everything they have tried in last years so far, now they release a 'kinect' that requires a large living room and does not recognize black people, and that besides all that paraphernalia, is no more magic than a web cam with good software that can be implemented in any other platform, but wich probably means they are gonna push so every game released for xbox is for kinect, moving to other consoles all those who dont meet requirements or dont find it interesting, and the last spots for 'office' are trying to trash openoffice.. and the worst part: they kept repeating the same attitudes that brought them to this state, over and over again..
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
james347 11th Nov 2010
Good.
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RE: Motorola retaliates with new patent suits against Microsoft
flypig0089 27th Sep
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