Fight Between Microsoft And Motorola Over Android Unfolds In U.S. Trade Court

Verizon Wireless and Motorola Inc's DROID(TM) 2
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

An epic battle between Microsoft and Motorola Mobility began to unfold on Monday in a U.S. court that oversees patent infringement cases against imported goods.

The case pits Microsoft against Motorola — and ultimately its new parent-to-be Google — in a larger battle over the U.S. market for smartphones. It’s the first fight to be heard at the trade court since Google announced its surprise acquisition of Motorola Mobility last week.

Microsoft filed dual patent infringement lawsuits against Motorola last October both in U.S. federal court for the Western District of Washington, and at the International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C.

The company has said that it owns many of the ideas that power key elements of the modern mobile phone experience.

“The patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power,” said Microsoft’s deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez last October when the company first filed suit.

An administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission heard arguments in the infringement case on Monday in a trial that’s expected to last until the end of August.

If the ITC finds in Microsoft’s favor, all future imports of Motorola’s Android phones could be blocked at U.S. borders.

Microsoft has asked the ITC to specifically block Motorola’s imports of the Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq XT, Devour, Backflip, and Charm, reports Bloomberg.

Judge Theodore Essex is scheduled to issue his findings November 4. The findings at the court would then be ratified or rejected by a panel of ITC judges, and that process is scheduled to be completed by March 5, after which either side can appeal to a U.S. appeals court.

For its part, Motorola Mobility told Bloomberg that it’s “vigorously” defending itself, and that it’s brought its own infringement lawsuits against Microsoft.

The court fight is just one facet of what appears to be a multi-pronged fight between Google and Microsoft and others to become the dominant company that controls the mobile platform as the modern computing paradigm moves from desktop computers to mobile devices such as phones and tablets.

Latest Idealab
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: