Microsoft and Google, along with Google"s recently acquired company Motorola Mobility, have been fighting in court on several fronts for a while now. This week, Microsoft and Motorola have actually decided to give lawsuits on three of their patent disputes a rest, at least for the moment.
Microsoft has previously claimed that Motorola had not offered licenses to the patents it controls for the video codec H.264 standard and the IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard under the Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) agreements.
Now, the word from FOSS Patents says that Microsoft and Motorola have put the brakes on these particular lawsuits until a judge rules on the FRAND licensing disputes. The trial concerning these issues is scheduled to start sometime in November.
However, this agreement to play nice does not mean that Microsoft and Motorola are all friends now. Both are still dealing with other patent lawsuits that have nothing to do with these particular cases. That includes one before the US International Trade Commission that could lead to a import ban of the Xbox 360 console in the US, if Motorola has its way. A committee for the ITC recently brought the case back to its judge for reconsideration.
Source: FOSS Patents