Google Letter to IEEE, Others:: We Will Comply With FRAND Patent Licensing Rules, Won’t Abuse Patents to Seek Injunctions
In a letter to the IEEE and other standards organizations, Google has assured them that they will not change Motorola’s patent licensing policies when it comes to patents dealing with global standards. Since Motorola owns patents that have been standardized they must give potential licensees a fair and reasonable cost and condition for using the patent, which is why Motorola’s recent injunctions against Apple likely won’t last long.
If you don’t remember, Motorola requested 2.25% of revenue from sales of 3G/UMTS-enabled iOS products, a figure that Apple disputes violates the conditions of FRAND laws. Motorola has also requested the same figures from Microsoft thanks to German rulings on a similar patent dispute. Once (if) Google takes over Motorola they won’t interfere with those disputes and Moto’s way of handling them.
As Google would own the patents, they have the right to use them themselves independent of Motorola. However, Google says they won’t aggressively seek to file an injunction on products that infringe on the patents and instead will give violating parties a chance to accept a fair licensing deal within 30 days unless the party they’re facing chooses to seek an injunction on their infringing products first.
All of that will go along way toward easing the nerves of antitrust regulators who are already nervous about the Google/Motorola acquisition in the first place. While we’re not sure if it will be enough to influence their opinions on the matter it’s a good stance to take regardless. We look forward to the result of that case, as well as Motorola’s current injunction against Apple for a 2.25% fee. [via The Verge]