Motorola requesting over 2% of Microsoft Surface profits

[Wenwm]

The latest legal action to face Microsoft is regarding its popular Surface tablet and Motorola, who are claiming they deserve a piece of the action from the device’s profits. The newly Google-company brought up the Microsoft Surface, during their on-going court battles, as a device that infringes on their patents. Motorola claims that since the Microsoft-made tablet’s only connectivity option is Wi-Fi, and Motorola owns the general patents surrounding that technology, Microsoft should pay high royalties for using the technology.
This is a quote from Motorola’s claim

“Microsoft’s new Surface tablet will use only 802.11, instead of cellular or wired connections, to connect to the internet. Without 802.11 capability, the Surface tablet would be unable to compete in the market, because consumers can readily select tablet devices other than the Surface that have 802.11 capability.”… Motorola contends that the judge’s deliberations “would need to account for the likely use of Motorola 802.11 SEPs [standard-essential patents] in future products (e.g., Microsoft’s recently released Surface tablet product).”

Interestingly enough, if Microsoft does end up losing these battles, they will find themselves paying over $4 billion a year to Motorola/Google just on these claims. Neverthless, this might not end up well for Microsoft because they will have to pay Motorola for using their Wi-Fi technology, now the price is based on what the judge feels is fair.

Via: Geekwire

 

[J515OP]

Wait, so Motorola is claiming to own the wifi patent? Is that correct?

 

[Sin]

A standard-essential patent is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard. Motorola has a patent that is essential to the 802.11 standard. Microsoft and Motorola disagree on how much that patent is worth, so the court gets to decide.

 

[GoHack]

The latest legal action to face Microsoft is regarding its popular Surface tablet and Motorola, who are claiming they deserve a piece of the action from the device’s profits. The newly Google-company brought up the Microsoft Surface, during their on-going court battles, as a device that infringes on their patents. Motorola claims that since the Microsoft-made tablet’s only connectivity option is Wi-Fi, and Motorola owns the general patents surrounding that technology, Microsoft should pay high royalties for using the technology.
This is a quote from Motorola’s claim

Interestingly enough, if Microsoft does end up losing these battles, they will find themselves paying over $4 billion a year to Motorola/Google just on these claims. Neverthless, this might not end up well for Microsoft because they will have to pay Motorola for using their Wi-Fi technology, now the price is based on what the judge feels is fair.

Via: Geekwire

Who is suppose to be responsible for the technology licensing, the WiFi hardware manufacturer, or the buyer of that hardware? In other words, there's a physical hardware chip that was purchased for the Tablet's manufacture, which allows the Tablet to communicate via WiFi. Isn't it that chip manufacturer's responsibility to have a license for the technology, and not the customer, or Microsoft in this case?

It's a good thing God didn't have any lawyers when he developed man, otherwise we as humans, would be paying a whole lot of licensing fees. :big smile:


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