#23: Federal Judge set FRAND rate for Microsoft's license to Google's SEP

Today Judge James Robart, the federal judge that ruled over the Microsoft v. Motorola FRAND contract case in the Western District of Washington determined a FRAND license fee for a case that was brought to the courts attention in November of last year.

The actual fee has not yet been published, Florian Mueller just noticed an order after which the court "issue[d] its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law (the 'Findings and Conclusions') determining a reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty rate and range for Motorola's standard essential patents". The decision will be filed under seal and were emailed to the council of record. The parties have until April 25^th at noon to propose redactions of confidential business information. On April 26 the court will hold a telephone conference with the parties to determine what information will be made public. So stay posted!

On August 26^th Judge Robart scheduled a second trial, “a breach-of-contract trial that may be another bench trial or could be (if Google gets its way) a jury trial.” This trial will discuss whether Motorola’s initial royalty demand, of about $4 billion per year. Was blatantly unreasonable and constituted a breach of Motorola’s FRAND pledge (which is apparently an enforceable contract). “Microsoft won a summary judgment decision against Motorola’s pursuit of injunctive relief” after the first trial.

Microsoft one its case against Motorola in November 2010 because Motorola was said to have failed adhering to its FRAND licensing commitment. Motorola’s conduct was judged to be so bad that the United States as well as the European Union conducted antitrust investigations. Based on these previous rulings it will be interesting to see whether Motorola will face similar consequences in the current cases.