WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some Motorola Mobility smartphones infringe on a Microsoft patent and will be barred from importation to the United States, a U.S. trade panel said on Friday.
The order by the U.S. International Trade Commission has been sent to President Barack Obama, who has 60 days to consider whether to overturn it for policy reasons.
The legal fight at the ITC is one of dozens globally between various smartphone makers. Google's
Android system has become the top-selling smartphone operating system,
ahead of mobile systems by Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and
others.
On Wednesday, some of HTC's
smartphone models were stopped at the U.S. border because it lost a
patent dispute with Apple at the ITC in December. Shares in HTC tumbled
more than 6 percent on news that shipments of the phones were being
held up by U.S. customs.
The ITC order did not say which
models of Motorola Mobility smartphone were affected but Microsoft has
asked for the following devices to be stopped at the U.S. border: the
Atrix, Backflip, Bravo, Charm, Cliq, Cliq 2, Cliq XT, Defy, Devour,
Droid 2, Droid 2 Global, Droid Pro, Droid X, Droid X2, Flipout,
Flipside, Spice and the Xoom tablet.
The patented technology at issue makes it possible for users to
generate meeting requests and schedule gatherings using their mobile
devices.One option for Motorola Mobility will be to remove the meeting-scheduling technology from its smartphones and tablets. The company could also license it from Microsoft.
Motorola Mobility, which is in
the process of being acquired by Google, said the company would not
feel any near-term impact.
"Although we are disappointed by the commission's ruling that
certain Motorola Mobility products violated one patent, we look forward
to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning," the company
said in an emailed statement. "We will explore all options including
appeal."Both sides can appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Microsoft said it was pleased with the decision. "We hope that now Motorola
will be willing to join the vast majority of Android device makers
selling phones in the US by taking a license to our patents," a company
spokeswoman said via email.
In a complaint filed in October 2010 with the ITC, Microsoft
accused Motorola Mobility of infringing nine patents for Windows Mobile
and Windows Phone.
Two patents were dropped during
litigation. An ITC administrative law judge in December found that
Motorola Mobility infringed on one Microsoft patent in making Android
cellphones but did not infringe on six others.
Google's Android software has
recently become the most popular cellphone operating system with 56
percent of the market in the first quarter of 2012, according to data
from Gartner Inc.
Motorola, which makes Android
phones, is one of the smaller mobile phone makers with 8.4 million
units sold globally in the last quarter, according to Gartner.
The ITC is a popular venue for
patent litigation since it has the power to forbid the importation of
products that infringe on patents.
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