Microsoft Files Anti-Trust Suit Against InterDigital

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, also alleges that InterDigital requires companies that want to license its patents to also pay for licensing of non-essential patents.

That aforementioned court case will see the US worldwide Trade Commission issue a ruling next month on whether Microsoft should be banned from importing smartphones into the US due to infringement of two InterDigital patents.

Wilmington is the home base of InterDigital, which makes money through the licensing of patents.

“As a developer of advanced innovative technologies and an owner of a large and growing patent portfolio, if we can not negotiate an acceptable license agreement with a company using our inventions, we will aggressively defend our intellectual property rights”. Owners of these kinds of patents typically commit to offering them to competitors at a reasonable rate and on fair terms.

Microsoft claims that InterDigital is “engaged in an unlawful scheme to acquire and exploit monopoly power over technology necessary for companies to make 3G and 4G cellular devices”, according to Reuters.

“InterDigital falsely promised to license its patents on reasonable terms to get them accepted as standards for the industry, and then use that status to charge exorbitant prices”.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, is crying foul.

A representative for InterDigital had no comment.

In April, an ITC judge said Microsoft infringed two of InterDigital’s patents related to moderating a mobile phone’s power to reduce signal interference, and recommended that Microsoft’s devices be blocked from import. The full commission is considering the judge’s findings and is scheduled to release its final decision on August 28.

The ITC judge has already stated that there is evidence Microsoft used “reverse patent holdup”.

Information Technology giant Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has gone ahead and dragged Communications & Networking technology solutions provider InterDigital, Inc. On one hand, there is Microsoft accusing InterDigital of charging unlawfully high prices for licensing the required patents, and on the other hand, InterDigital is accusing Microsoft of not licensing enough patents.