JURIST - Paper Chase: Germany court rejects Microsoft's case against Motorola

[JURIST] A German court on Thursday dismissed the patent infringement case brought by Microsoft Corp. against Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility [corporate website]. Microsoft alleged [WSJ report] that Motorola has unlawfully used its patent EP1304891 [European Patent Register materials] which monitors different functions on a smartphone and provides such information to other applications utilizing them. Another case that was brought by Microsoft against Motorola Mobility involving a patent on system input methods is postponed to September 20. Microsoft has announced that it will appeal the ruling while Motorola Mobility has expressed its satisfaction of the outcome. The recent decision is contrary to a ruling by a Munich regional court which issued an injunction [Gigaom report] on Motorola Mobility after finding that it infringed upon Microsoft's EP1304891.

Microsoft and Motorola has been in litigation against each other around the globe. Earlier this month, both companies filed [JURIST report] a joint motion in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] asking the court to suspend three patent cases between the parties until a trial is held on a licensing disagreement. Microsoft had alleged that Motorola failed to license Google [corporate website], which owns the company since 2010, certain video and Wi-Fi technology on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms. In May the US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] concluded [JURIST report] its investigation into a complaint that a number of Motorola mobile phones infringed on several Microsoft patents.