Brussels, 24/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 February, the American IT group Microsoft announced that it had brought a complaint before the European Commission against Motorola Mobility and its new owner, Google, which it accuses of “trying to block sales” of its products by charging excessive prices for the use of Motorola's standard essential patents (SEP).
Amongst other things, Microsoft claims that Motorola brought legal proceedings against it in Europe and the US, requiring it to withdraw its products or remove video broadcasting functions and internet wireless connections which use its standard essential patents (Ed: SEP, patents which are absolutely indispensable, as they cover obligatory sections of certain standards and therefore become part of the standards themselves). This, Microsoft argues, comes down to wanting to block the sale of computers using Windows, games consoles or other products, because “Motorola is refusing to make its patents accessible at a price which is close to reasonable”.
This complaint was announced nine days after the American and European authorities gave their green light to the purchase of Motorola Mobility by Google, an operation which will allow the latter to take control of some 17,000 patents, mostly in the fields of video and mobile telephony.
Google reacted by stating that “Microsoft's complaint is just one more example of its attempts to use legal processes to attack its competitors.”
A similar complaint to the one brought by Microsoft was made by Apple, which asked for the European Commission's intervention regarding Motorola's alleged abusive use of SEPs.
As early as August last year, Google, which at the time had just failed to buy up the patents of the bankrupt equipment manufacturer Nortel, claimed that it was the victim of a “hostile campaign” led by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and others, “by means of phoney patents”, reports AFP.
“We pay particularly close attention to the strategic use which is made of patterns in this sector and we will study Microsoft's complaint carefully”, said a Commission spokesperson, declining to make any further comment at this stage. (FG/transl.fl)