Microsoft has won third patent case against search engine giant Google following a court in Munich, Germany ruled that many Motorola tablets and phones had violated a process to handle diverse input commands from phone users.
The Munich state court ruled that Motorola Mobility infringed a Microsoft patent involving technology for input commands in the mobile devices.
Ruling from the German court may lead to Google modifying its Android operating system or pay a license fee to Microsoft for the use of the technology in the devices which are sold in Germany. The German court howerver said that Google can appeal the ruling.
According to Microsoft, Samsung, HTC and others also pay for the license for using the technology, which Motorola had resisted
Microsoft’s victory will lead to additional sales restrictions of Google’s products in Germany except it makes alterations in its Android operating system.
Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said that the decision builds on previous rulings in Germany that have already found Motorola is broadly infringing Microsoft’s intellectual property.
"We will continue to enforce injunctions against Motorola products in Germany and hope Motorola will join other Android device makers by taking a licence to Microsoft’s patented inventions," Howard said.
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The patent under discussion remarks that devices have been too small to "accommodate a full character keyboard" that lead to requirement for various methods for a user to input data.
The patent also describes the use of on-screen letter and numeric keyboards; handwriting and drawing interfaces; and voice recognition.
In May 2012, the search engine giant had won the right to avert German stores from trading Microsoft’s Xbox 360 games consoles, the Windows 7 operating system, the Internet Explorer browser and Windows Media Player.
But, Google has not been able to implement a ban as a US judge has intervened in the probe.
The judge has appealed to weigh up Microsoft’s allege that Google had demanded an irrational licence fee for the H.264 video patents at the heart of the lawsuit.
The trial the case is set for 13 November 2012.
