Submission + - Microsoft Gains Ground In Motorola Patent Lawsuit (seattlepi.com)
'major win' according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Microsoft blog. RedmondMag.com also says Microsoft is 'scoring points'. Both articles refer to a recently published claim construction order by the ITC judge investigating Microsoft's complaint, which could result in an import ban against Android-based Motorola smartphones. Claim construction is an intermediate step and important milestone: depending on how the language of the asserted patents is interpreted, a defendant may or may not be found liable for infringement. Motorola's proposed interpretations were adopted by the judge in only 5 of 22 cases. Motorola was the first Android device maker to be sued by Microsoft. HTC is reportedly paying Microsoft $5 per Android device, but prices have gone up, says the same analyst. More recently, Microsoft also sued Barnes and Noble (and its manufacturers FoxConn and Inventec) over the Nook and Nook Color e-book readers. That's why Microsoft's patent litigation with Motorola is of concern to a number of companies.