An ongoing lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) went through some unexpected turn of events, which have resulted in Theodore Essex, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) judge, to give a guilty verdict against the software giant on Monday. This lawsuit was actually inherited from Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK), when Microsoft bought the Finnish company back in 2011 along with two other companies, ZTE and Huawei. After Microsoft bought Nokia the legal issue became theirs to manage.
This lawsuit was initially filed by InterDigital Inc. This was done so as Microsoft infringed two wireless cellular phones owned by InterDigital Inc, a patent licensor. The judge went as far as saying that it would not be against public interest to ban Microsoft imports of the infringing devices, which relates to a technology that connects them to 3G networks, without much hindrance being faced by the user in the United States.
Though Microsoft has already been called guilty, there has been no word on the other defendants. Nokia was first alleged of infringement in 2007. Though the ITC originally cleared Nokia of infringement, in 2012 the US Court of Appeals Federal Circuit overturned that decision and sent it back into the hands of the ITC. If the phones are to be banned, Microsoft’s sales in the region would obviously be affected in a negative way. It will further hurt the software company's already stunted sales of the Windows 10 phones, and will add to its difficulty of trying to make its phone division business profitable.
Upon inquiry, the company said in a statement, "We have a successful track record challenging patent assertion entities that misuse industry standards." However, the Vice President of InterDigital Executive, Lawrence Shay said that the company looks forward to “continued discussion”, hinting that InterDigital might actually be looking forward to discussing licensing terms.
This development occurs as Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has already put into place a mechanism to get rid of potential patent trolls, in the wake of various lawsuits being made against several Fortune 500 companies accused of infringing several patents. While it might not apply in this case, it could mark further issues for the tech giant since its takeover of Nokia’s troubed phone business.
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