Motorola Must Appeal in Ninth Circuit Loss In Patent License Dispute for Microsoft Xbox

Patent infringement is not at issue, not yet at least, in a battle over a prospective license for standard-essential patents (SEPs) owned by Motorola Inc. and used by Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox gaming systems, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled May 5 in a nonprecedential decision (Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola, Inc., Fed. Cir., 2014-1089, 5/5/14).

Accordingly, the court held that jurisdiction was properly before the Ninth Circuit instead, with the issue primarily being whether Motorola breached its agreement with the relevant standards bodies, and the Ninth Circuit already having justified its jurisdiction in a prior ...