Microsoft Corp. has filed a competition complaint against Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., and its soon-to-be parent Google Inc., with the European Commission, claiming that Motorola charges too much for its patents and is trying to head off sales of Microsoft products.
Microsoft deputy general counsel Dave Heiner opined in a blog post that Motorola is undermining the purpose of the industry standards for wireless video products through its unreasonable licensing demands on its standard essential patents. “Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the Web,” Heiner wrote, “and Google as its new owner doesn’t seem to be willing to change course.”
Motorola counters that it remains open to resolving the current licensing dispute with Microsoft in a mutually beneficial manner; that it had offered the same terms it historically offered to other licensees; and that it was Microsoft that insisted upon litigation.
Microsoft’s action followed the EC’s and DOJ’s Feb. 13 approval of Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola.
Google has issued a letter to industry-standard-setting organizations stating that it will continue to honor Motorola’s current patent licensing practices. Google also plans to adopt Motorola’s maximum per-unit royalty of 2.25% of the net selling price on devices that use the essential patents.