Microsoft sues Motorola over Xbox royalty payments

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit accusing Motorola of charging excessive royalty fees for technologies Microsoft has licensed for use in its Xbox gaming consoles.

The dispute centres on patents relating to wireless local area network (WLAN) and H.264 video coding technologies.

The Microsoft v Motorola filing at a Seattle district court alleges that Motorola has been "demanding royalties that are excessive and discriminatory".

Microsoft is asking for unspecified damages, and that all Motorola wireless LAN patents are licensed for "reasonable rates, with reasonable terms and conditions that are demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination".

Microsoft sent across a statement to V3.co.uk confirming that the reason for the filing was because Motorola breached contractual commitments to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to license identified patents related to wireless and video coding technologies under reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.

"Those commitments are designed to benefit all parties that rely upon these standards, and Microsoft has been harmed by Motorola’s failure to honour them in recent demand letters seeking royalties from Microsoft."

V3.co.uk also contacted Motorola for comment, but the firm had responded at the time of writing.

The companies are already involved in a separate case in which Microsoft alleges that Motorola is breaching patents in its Android smartphones.

Motorola is also involved in a long-running patent infringement dispute with Apple.