Microsoft and Motorola at odds over patent payout values

The extent of the disagreement between Motorola and Microsoft over the value of key patents has emerged, with newly released court documents detailing how far apart the tech giants are in their valuations.

The case was originally heard by a Western District of Washington federal court between 13 and 20 November. Motorola had claimed that Microsoft's Xbox games console illegally used technology owned by the mobile phone maker.

Now, court documents have been released which show startling divergence in the two firms' valuation of the technology.

Reuters reported Microsoft claimed it should pay no more $502,000 per year for Motorola's video patent and no more than $736,000 per year for the Wi-Fi patent.

Motorola was seeking annual payments from Microsoft of between $100 million and $125 million for use of its video patent portfolio alone.

At the time of publishing Microsoft had not responded to V3's request for comment. Motorola said it had no comment to make.

The US court is expected to make a final ruling on the case midway through next year.

This case is just one of many patent battles being waged within the tech industry.

As well as Motorola and Microsoft, chief competitor Apple is currently mounting litigation against numerous other smartphone and tablet manufacturers.