Microsoft cries foul, sues Motorola

Hey, you know that gaming console that Microsoft makes? Well, there’s a lot of technology inside those Xbox 360s that other companies hold the rights to. That means in order to manufacture the Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft has to pay royalty fees to those different companies. One such company is Motorola.

Motorola is responsible for the technology behind the Xbox 360’s wireless communication device; in other words: the wireless network capabilities that are now standard in the Xbox 360 S models. Motorola is also responsible for one of the video codecs used by the Xbox 360. Microsoft is not happy, and now they’re suing Motorola. For what?

Well, because according to Microsoft, Motorola’s royalty fees are too high. That’s right, Microsoft is bitching that Motorola is charging them too much to use their proprietary hardware and codec. Oh the irony! How much does Microsoft charge us, the end users, for their proprietary hardware? What about add-on hard disk drives for the Xbox 360? Yeah, thought so.

Still, perhaps Microsoft has a point, because they’re claiming that Motorola is charging them way more than other companies have been charged in the past. Of course, Motorola thinks otherwise and has said: “We worked with Microsoft to reach an agreement that would have allowed Microsoft to use our proprietary technologies without infringing Motorola’s patents.”

Motorola is claiming that that is not how Microsoft has seen it: “Unfortunately, despite a fair offer from Motorola, Microsoft was unwilling to enter into a licensing agreement”

Despite the fact that part of me relishes in Microsoft’s indignation at being overcharged for proprietary hardware, I kind of want them to win this case; I’ve loathed Motorola ever since I was dumb enough to buy one of their crappy E398 cell phones.

Source: Kotaku and CVG

Last Updated: November 10, 2010