Microsoft Contends FTC-Google Deal Kills Pending Motorola Patent Cases

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Though the agreement Google reached with the Federal Trade Commission was in many ways expected, there’s one issue that really doesn’t seem to be clear. That is: What is Google required to do with the existing standards-essential patent cases it is currently fighting on behalf of its Motorola subsidiary against Microsoft and Apple?

The FTC got Google to sign a consent decree saying it wouldn’t seek injunctions over its SEPs — patents that contribute to foundational parts of smartphones and other devices across the industry — as long as other companies were willing to license them. But what happens to existing cases — for instance, one involving Motorola patents on the video compression standard H.264, which Microsoft wants to license for Xbox but not on Google’s proposed royalty terms? FTC spokesman Peter Kaplan said, “The answer is that under the order they do not have to drop their appeals of SEP cases, but at the same time they cannot obtain or enforce any SEP exclusion orders or injunctions.” But Microsoft pointed out, in a filing released by the U.S. International Trade Commission, that the FTC said in multiple parts of the published agreements and public statements that Google had to withdraw all its related SEP claims.


Microsoft Contends FTC-Google Deal Kills Pending Motorola Patent Cases