Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola, Inc.
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
2013 WL 2111217 (2013)
- Written by Eric Cervone, LLM
Facts
The video-coding technology standard known as the H.264 Standard incorporated patented technology. Thus, in order for a company to practice the standard, the company was required to use technology that was covered by a standard-essential patent. Motorola (defendant) owned patents that were essential to the H.264 Standard. Motorola committed to license these patents on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms. Microsoft (plaintiff) sought to license these patents. Motorola sent two letters to Microsoft offering a license under the Motorola patents that were essential to the H.264 Standard. Motorola sought a royalty of 2.25% of the price of Microsoft end products that used the technology in the patents. Microsoft stated that Motorola breached its RAND obligations by making an unreasonable offer in a negotiation to license Motorola’s patents. Microsoft sued Motorola for breach of contract.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Robart, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 805,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.