Motorola turns down Microsoft's royalty offer, decides to keep $100 million bond

Back in April, in Seattle, U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled that Microsoft should pay Motorola only $1.8 million a year as a royalty payment to use Motorola's standards-essential patents. These are patents that a company cannot avoid using to build a specific device. Negotiations over licensing of these patents is supposed to be done in a "Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory" fashion, hence they are called FRAND patents. 

The patents involved with this particular case are the H.264 video standard and the 802.11 wireless standard and Motorola, a wholly owned subsidiary of Google, was seeking $4 billion a year for the rights to use them. The technology is used for Windows Phone and for the Xbox and Redmond based Microsoft recently sent a letter to Motorola suggesting that it make a $6.8 million payment to cover all past use of the patents. Motorola has refused the payment and is continuing to hold on to a court-ordered $100 million bond obtained by Microsoft even though the actual damages that were awarded by the judge were well under this amount.

In addition to paying $6.8 million to catch up with past use of the patented technology, Microsoft said it would also pay Motorola future royalty rates based on future rate-setting court decisions. Whether you are an attorney or just play one on television, you can check out the legal documents below, including a copy of the letter from Microsoft to Motorola.

Source: Phonearena

Posted by Unknown

on Monday, June 24, 2013

No comments

Read More »

Mark of the beast? Motorola pushes human tattoo to replace digital 'smartphone' passwords

Desperate to make a comeback in the mobile phone market, technology giant Motorola, which is now owned by Big Brother spying shill Google, has developed a few solutions to a problem that does not actually even exist: the "chore" of having to type in a short passcode to access your locked cell phone. Yes, Motorola thinks this split-second step is somehow too laborious for the average consumer, and has thus come up with two potential new methods of accessing "smart phones" that involve either tattooing yourself with an electronic bar code or swallowing a pill that contains a small microchip.

Motorola unveiled the new technology at the recent AllThingsD conference, which showcases all the latest digital advancements in the development pipeline. As reported by DailyTech.com, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside unveiled a small rubber stamp tattoo at the conference that the company hopes will one day replace having to type in a smart phone password. According to reports, the small stamp, which contains flexible electronic circuits, can be scanned by a smart phone to gain instant access.

"Motorola's tattoos have already been developed by MC10, a Massachusetts-based engineering firm," explains DailyTech.com. "Instead of punching in passwords, users just place their smart phones close to their tattoos for verification."

Motorola also wants you to swallow microchip drugs to access your smartphone

But why stop at tattoos when you can also incorporate drugs into the mix? You read that right. Motorola is also in the process of developing a once-daily drug pill that people can take to access their smart phones without having to type in a password. The pill, known officially as Proteus Digital Health, transmits signals from your digestive tract to your smart phone for instant access without a password.

"Users would take a pill by mouth, and the pill would create an individual signal that would be picked up by their smart phone," adds DailyTech.com, noting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved the drug for use. "The computer chip within the pill would be powered by a battery using the user's stomach acid."

Ironically, the amount of time it takes to pop the pill, not to mention the effort required to remember to take it every day, is far more arduous than simply tapping a few spots on your phone screen prior to use. But why let reason get in the way of technological "progress," especially when such "progress" stands to generate billions of dollars in new revenues for completely useless technologies?

"Authentication is irritating," says Regina Dugan, Senior Vice President of Advanced Research at Motorola, about the "hassle" of having to unlock a smart phone. "Having the boldness to think differently about problems that everybody has every day is really important for Motorola now."

Nice try, Ms. Dugan. But the fact of the matter is that typing in a security code on a smart phone is not actually a "problem," at least not for the tens of millions of normal Americans who do it every day without issue. But go ahead, be our guest. Get that nice little tattoo and swallow those pills and pretend that you are solving the world's problems one privacy-invading step at a time.

Source: Natural News

Posted by Unknown

on Monday, June 24, 2013

No comments

Read More »

Motorola sued again by "patent troll"

Intellectual Ventures, a company referred to as a "patent troll" by Google, is heading back to court to square off once again with Motorola Mobility. On Wednesday, the company filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida claiming that Google's wholly owned Motorola Mobility subsidiary had infringed on seven of its patents. Back in 2011, in a Delaware lawsuit, the company claimed that Motorola Mobility had infringed on six of its patents. Two of the seven patents included in yesterday's suit had been owned by Nokia as recently as 2011.


While Google sees the IP portfolio holder as a nemesis, Intellectual Ventures sees itself as the builder of anew marketplace for inventions. It added that taking Motorola Mobility to court was not its intention and that it is instigating the latest suit as a last resort. The legal battle covers patents for features like multimedia messaging to file transfer technology.

"These infringements complaints are a necessary step in protecting our patent rights and fulfilling our commitments to our investors, inventors and licensees"-Intellectual Ventures

"We’re fighting to stop patent trolls’ use of low-quality patents to extort money from companies that actually innovate and make real things. We support bipartisan efforts by the White House and Congress to end these kinds of abuses"-Google

In order to avoid any problems, back in 2010 HTC and Samsung entered into patent licensing agreements agreements separately with Intellectual Ventures. The agreements cover the use of IV's patents for the production of Android flavored phones.

source: AllThingsD

Posted by Unknown

on Thursday, June 20, 2013

No comments

Read More »

Motorola Moto X Smartphone specifications leaks

Chief Executive Dennis Woodside confirmed in May that Motorola was developing a lead phone called the Moto X for an October release. Now specification details for the Android handset have leaked online.


According to @evleaks, an anonymous Twitter account that has been accurate with mobile rumors in the past, the Moto X will be equipped with a 720p display, a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro and a 10-megapixel camera. It is also rumored to include 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The smartphone’s display size remains a mystery, although earlier reports suggested it will measure between 4.3-inches and 4.7-inches diagonally. Not bad, but with this being the first Motorola phone since Google bought the company, we just expected more.The Moto X will be manufactured in the United States and will be available sometime this fall across multiple carriers.

Saying that, Google mentioned in an interview that the Moto X will have sensors that will know (for example) when the phone is taken out of someone’s pocket or travelling in a car, acting differently in each circumstance.
So the real story could be outside the general spec sheet. More on this when we hear it

Source: @evleaks

Posted by Unknown

on Tuesday, June 18, 2013

No comments

Read More »