Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are once again in the tiff over value of the patents in technology standards. The two giants will take on each other at the appeals court in San Francisco today. The case is an epitome of the significance of patents and their value to the technology-based companies.
A valuable patent case
There are a range of such patent-related cases that go into the court over disputes, mainly when they circle around the mobile space. However, this particular case is considered as highly valuable because it is in this case that the court is explaining regarding the reasonable royalty issues when the patents are being used as archetypical. This holds significance because almost every technology-building company is dependent on the standards of these kinds for ensuring that their products are working with the ones from other tech companies as well.
Background of the Case
Originally, the dispute sprouted between Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) and Microsoft. This happened prior to Motorola being acquired by Lenovo Group Limited (ADR) (OTCMKTS:LNVGY). Even before that, Motorola was a Google product.
In 2010, Motorola filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in front of International Trade Commission demanding the company to stop selling Xbox console because of patent infringement of the game system. Microsoft, in turn, filed the federal suit claiming that Motorola was responsible for breaching the contract in regard to a range of standard bodies.
Microsoft said that Motorola did not have a proper license on reasonable and fair grounds, in relation to the patents associated with 802.11 Wi-Fi and H.264 video standards.
The case was about to be settled when Google announced the deal in 2011. Thereafter, it was all between Microsoft and Google, and the two decided to settle it in the court. This case went to the court for trial in 2013.
