Jude Rules Xbox 360 Violates Motorola Mobility patents

A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has found that Microsoft Xbox 360 was in violation of four Motorola patents. This ruling will be observed by the US regulatory commission who will form a six member panel to review the judges findings and announce what appropriate action should be taken. This commission can enforce an import ban on products that infringe on patents; in other words if the US regulatory commission decides that Microsoft did in fact egregiously infringe on the Motorola patents then they can ban the Xbox 360 from coming into the country. However, this may all mean nothing if a settlement is reached between the two companies. Basically Motorola said they only filed the patent suit because Microsoft alleged that Motorola Android-powered devices were infringing on Microsoft patents. So there is a chance that the whole thing will be settled out of court but it may be a while. Apparently the commission will make a final report on May 18th, but a decision may not come down until late August. The Xbox 360 is manufactured in China so a import ban preventing the console from being shipped into the United States would be extremely damaging to Microsoft. Here is Microsoft's official statement on the issue:

"Today's recommendation by the administrative law judge is the first step in the process leading to the commission€™s final ruling, We remain confident the commission will ultimately rule in Microsoft's favor in this case and that Motorola will be held to its promise to make its standard-essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms."