It was about a year ago that a judge in the US ruled that Motorola would be allowed to stop all imports of the Xbox 360 into America until a patent lawsuit was completed. Thankfully some logic prevailed and the imports weren’t stopped but the case has been rumbling on and has finally come to a close..
What made this case unique was that at no time was Microsoft saying that they weren’t using the Motorola technology; they just felt that Motorola was asking for too much in the form of royalties and wanted a judge to set a RAND for them, RAND apparently stands for Reasonable And Non Discriminatory royalty range.
The patents were for the ubiquitous 802.11 wifi ability and the H.264 video codec. Both of these technologies are industry standards and if Motorola was allowed to charge the full 2.25% of the product price then it would mean that Microsoft would have to fork over $4 Billion a year to cover the patent costs. Which would mean we’d be charged more for consoles and Windows software to ensure the Microsoft shareholders still got their pound of flesh.
However in the end the judge has ruled that Microsoft must pay 0.555 cents for each product that uses Motorolla’s H.264 video codec, capped at 16.389 per unit. How you get more than one product per unit is unknown to me but there you go. As for the wifi, Motorola will now get 3.471 cents per Xbox sold and 0.8 cents for every other Microsoft product that uses it.
in the end, this means Microsoft will be forced to pay $1.8 million per annum, which is a far cry from $4 Billion.
This of course means that we will be charged less at retail…right? That’s how it works right? What do you mean it just means the shareholders get more profit and we pay the same price… that’s not right.
Last Updated: April 29, 2013
Admiral Chief Erwin
April 29, 2013 at 11:28
Yup, consumers need this
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
April 29, 2013 at 11:42
lol
Anon A Mouse
April 29, 2013 at 11:54
Take a guess which company is American and which isn’t.
HvR
April 29, 2013 at 12:08
????
Microsoft – American multinational
Motorolla Mobility (start as a part of Motorola and American multinational) owned by Google an American multinational.
Anon A Mouse
April 29, 2013 at 12:20
Jip, my bad. Too early on a Monday to think straight it seems.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
April 29, 2013 at 12:09
Wait, Microsoft claiming unfair royalty charges? Really? Well that’s the pot calling the kettle black
HvR
April 29, 2013 at 12:18
Note to Gavin, maybe be a bit more specific which Motorola you are referring too. With the break up of Motorola there are 3 floating around.
Motorola Solutions (nearest to the old Motorola) – develop and manufacture radios
Motorola Mobility – their mobile phone division which is now owned by Google (involved in the lawsuit)
Motorola M2M – bought by Teilit, these days rarely uses the Motorola brand name
Brady miaau
April 29, 2013 at 13:18
M2M is awesom company though. Clever people
HvR
April 29, 2013 at 14:57
Very helpful as well, but lost some its flare when Telit bought it. Cinterion stays my sweetheart in the M2M industry, everything just works.
Brady miaau
April 29, 2013 at 13:19
As a general note, as MS updates our XBox, I noticed that movies and AVI / WMV files that used to work no longer work. And I believe that was done to avoid copy right issues