Motorola just received some rather bad news, a German Judge, Andreas Voss, says that Motorola has clearly violated a patent that pertains to Microsoft’s FAT (File Allocation Table) technology in several of its Android powered smartphones, specifically the DROID Razr, Razr Maxx and the Atrix.
The courts are ordering Motorola (in this case, its new parent company, Google) to pay half of the court costs and if Microsoft chooses to enforce the injunction, could place a ban on all previously mentioned devices. Motorola doesn’t seem phased at all by the decision and says if needed, they can still appeal the decision. “We don’t anticipate an impact on our operations at this time,” a Motorola spokeswoman said.
Microsoft on the other hand, says they’ll continue to enforce the injunction against Motorola in order to protect their patents and that Motorola, like several other key Android OEM’s, should license the necessary patents. Microsoft already collects royalties from several high profile Android manufacturers and actually makes more money from them, then they do from their own Windows Phone operating system.
Source: WSJ