Motorola Mobility Inc. recently brought an action before the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) against Microsoft Corp. relating to the importation of the Xbox 360 console. At the center of the controversy is the potential infringement of five patents covering digital video coding and transmission. The case is In re: Certain Gaming and Entertainment Consoles, Related Software and Components Thereof, case number 337-2770.
Motorola has requested that the ITC institute a Section 337 investigation with allegations that various Microsoft consoles (specifically the 4GB Xbox 360S and 250GB Xbox 360S) infringe U.S. Patent Numbers 5,319,712; 5,357,571; 6,069,896; 6,980,596; and 7,162,094.
Motorola’s ‘712, ‘571 and ‘896 patents describe methods for protecting data streams and securing point-to-point communications in wireless communication and establishing connections between devices in a wireless peer-to-peer network. The ‘596 and ‘094 patents describe frequency scanning paths for transform-based decoding of digital content as well as digital coding inventions that facilitate higher levels of compression of digital video content.
Motorola is seeking a permanent exclusion order to stop Microsoft from importing the allegedly infringing consoles, as well as an order barring their advertisement and warehousing.