Motorola Loses Interlocutory Appeal in Xbox Litigation
The Apple-Samsung case may be the most talked-about patent infringement case of the year, but it's certainly not the only case that people are talking about.
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction preventing Motorola from enforcing an injunction it won in a German court against sales of Microsoft's Xbox and Windows sales in Germany, the Seattle Times reports.
The preliminary injunction came from a pair of Microsoft-Motorola cases: A Microsoft suit filed in Seattle, and a Motorola suit filed Germany. Microsoft claimed in the Seattle case that Motorola breached its contract to provide use of its patented technologies that have become standard in online video viewing and wireless usage. Motorola argued in the German case that Microsoft violated some of Motorola's patents involving those same technologies.
Though the German court concluded that Microsoft infringed on those Motorola patents and issued an injunction, Motorola was unable to enforce the injunction because of the Seattle litigation, according to the Seattle Times.
In an interlocutory appeal, Motorola requested relief from the district court's preliminary injunction that temporarily enjoined Motorola from enforcing the German-issued patent injunction.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the district court's grant of a foreign anti-suit injunction under the deferential abuse-of-discretion standard, and affirmed.
To enforce the German sales ban, the appeals court said that Motorola would have to post a security bond covering potential damages to Microsoft. Microsoft could also avoid the injunction by taking steps towards entering a licensing agreement with Motorola with a specific rate or rate determined by Motorola, reports BusinessWeek.
The preliminary injunction will remain in place until the district court makes a decision in the Microsoft-Motorola battle. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled to begin on November 13.
Related Resources:
- Microsoft Corporation v. Motorola (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
- Do Cops Need Warrants for Your Xbox Console? (FindLaw's Blotter)
- Apple Samsung Verdict: Apple Wins $1.05 Billion (FindLaw's California Case Law Blog)