Microsoft: We Were Expecting the Motorola Countersuit

Motorola’s countersuit against Microsoft was to be expected, Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing, Microsoft Corporation confirmed for Softpedia.

The two companies are currently in a legal face-off related to their respective intellectual property portfolios, with neither of them showing signs of backing down.

The latest move came from Motorola which filed a number of patent infringement complaints against the software giant.

Still, Motorola’s IP violation claims are part of a countersuit introduced after Microsoft sued the phone maker over patent infringement as well as over the royalties charged for video coding and wireless patents.

Gutierrez reveals that Microsoft is still in the process of analyzing the complaints filed by Motorola, and that it would not discuss the matter in detail for the time being.

“We are still reviewing Motorola’s filing, which we just received. This move is typical of the litigation process and we are not surprised,” he explained.

“We remain confident in our position and will continue to move forward with the complaints we initiated against Motorola in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and with the International Trade Commission (ITC),” Gutierrez added.

Back in March 2010, Gutierrez commented on the increasing number of IP lawsuits related to the mobile market, noting that they were necessary in order to establish which companies are owned royalties for the patents that go into mobile devices, including the software stack.

At the start of October 2010, the software giant sued Motorola alleging patent infringement for the use of Google’s Android platform in the company’s smartphones.

Earlier this week, Microsoft debuted a new legal action against Motorola, this time around not for IP violation, but for breach of commitments to standardization bodies and their members alleging that the royalties demanded by the phone vendor are excessive and discriminatory.

On November 10, Motorola fired back with its own IP infringement lawsuit, accusing Microsoft that it violates 16 patents related to Windows OS, digital video coding, email (Exchange, Messenger and Outlook, Windows Live instant messaging), etc. spanning Microsoft’s PC and Server software, Windows mobile software and Xbox.