Motorola, Microsoft suspend some patent disputes until trial

IDG News Service - Motorola Mobility and Microsoft have agreed to suspend their patent claims against each other in three U.S. cases until a November trial on Microsoft claims that Motorola has not lived up to promises to license some video and Wi-Fi patents on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms.

The two companies, involved in three patent lawsuits in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, agreed to stay their lawsuits against each other while the two sides concentrate on the RAND license issues to be addressed in Nov. 13 trial, according to court documents. On Tuesday, the two companies filed a joint motion to stay all patent infringement claims.

The patent claims will be suspended until the trial, and a possible appeal, is resolved, according to the joint motion.

Representatives of the two companies didn't immediately respond to a request for comments. The FOSS Patents blog originally reported the agreement.

Microsoft's November 2010 RAND complaint against Motorola Mobility, now owned by Google, accuses the company of not licensing its patents for the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard and the H.264 video codec standard on RAND terms, as it had promised to standards bodies.

In November 2010, Motorola filed a complaint against Microsoft for allegedly infringing seven patents. A month later, Motorola filed another complaint, alleging that Microsoft has infringed three Motorola patents related to mobile computing and telepresence.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.