Microsoft"s patent battle with Motorola Mobility, as expected, entered into a new phase on Monday. Bloomberg reports that during a hearing at the International Trade Commission in Washington, DC Microsoft asked the ITC to ban the sale of Motorola"s smartphones, claiming that the phones infringe on several of its patents. The Motorola phones included in the proposed ban are the Droid 2, the Droid X, the Cliq XT, the Devour, the Backflip and the Charm.
In a statement, Microsoft"s deputy general counsel for litigation David Howard said , "We have a responsibility to our employees, customers, partners and shareholders to safeguard our intellectual property. Motorola is infringing our patents and we are confident that the ITC will rule in our favor." For its part Motorola"s spokesperson said that it is "vigorously defending" itself against Microsoft, adding, "We have also brought legal actions of our own in the U.S. and in Europe to address Microsoft’s large scale of infringement of Motorola Mobility’s patents.”
As we reported earlier, Microsoft"s dispute centers on how Motorola"s phones, which use Google"s Android operating system, are able to sync several of its phones" features like email, contacts and more. The dispute also involves the phones letting its users know about how much battery power is left along with finding the best signal strength. Google is not involved in the lawsuit. The judge in the case is expected to rule on this case on November 5 with the ITC scheduled to fully complete its investigation into the matter on March 5.