Motorola Mobility was found guilty by a German court for a violation of a patent that is held by Microsoft. The ruling was made by Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court and said that Motorola’s devices that run the Android OS are infringing upon a patent dealing with the File Allocation Tables (FAT). The patent relates to a “common name space for long and short filenames” and this filing was first made by FOSS Patents. According to experts in the industry, Microsoft is now allowed to bring into effect an injunction against Motorola devices that infringe on the patent and at the same time force the latter to post a 10 million euro bond. Moreover, the judge is going to allow Microsoft to claim damages from Motorola and even recall all the devices that violate the patent.
FAT is a popular file storage system that has been in use for several years and Microsoft has used this system in several of its operating systems, particularly the DOS and Windows OS. Microsoft filed the suit claiming that the patent was violated in Motorola’s Android devices and now the latter will probably be forced to change its way. However, given the freedom of file systems in the Linux environment, Motorola shouldn’t have too much trouble. Motorola is the only big time Android device manufacturer that holds several licensed patents from Microsoft. According to the software behemoth, it owns several patents that could be inadvertently violated in Android devices and manufacturers are looking to license them rather than face lawsuits.
Motorola, in an attempt to defend itself against the lawsuit from Microsoft, filed counterclaims saying that the software giant violated several patents which are used in the XBOX 360, Windows and Internet Explorer. Microsoft has, quite predictably denied the allegations and said that the FAT allegation is not a standard essential patent but Motorola’s claims involve standard essentials. In its statements, Microsoft expressed its pleasure at the victory and said that it will be a good idea for Motorola to look towards licensing Microsoft’s patents.
This ruling bans Motorola products in Germany and it worked out in favor of Microsoft which was given a settlement offer from Motorola to the tune of 33 cents for every phone that infringes on Microsoft’s patents and in return, Microsoft pays 50 cents for every Windows device that violates Motorola’s patents.
