Microsoft vs. Motorola cont.

After the decision made in the US and being $14.5 million dollars down the drain in damages, Motorola took the battle overseas. They filed patent infringement cases in Germany, accusing Microsoft of infringing two H.264-essential patents. They alleged that Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows infringed on Motorola’s German patents essential to the H.264 standard. Motorola eventually got an injunction against Microsoft from the German court prohibiting Xbox sales in that country (but they found a loophole and started just distributing through the Netherlands). Then they brought it back Stateside where Microsoft filed a motion in Washington trying to prevent Motorola from enforcing the injunction, and the court granted temporary restraining order between the two companies butting heads.

This case is ever continuing and is just one of the many multimillion dollar smartphone war cases that have been circulating around the globe. Since smartphones are such a new concept the lines of the law are very much skewed and blurry. The high level of intellectual property on top of the insane software created from that is undeniable, and thats the issue. Since patent courts are still very much facing issues, its nearly impossible for them to correctly rule this brand new products. On top of that fact is the idea that these companies are world wide. And because of that, they have courts all over the world to hop to and from if it doesn't work out in their favour in one place. It's like an endless cycle of lawsuit and money going out the widow. Just look at this graph, everyone in this industry is facing lawsuits and it doesn't seem like its going to be solved any time soon.