Last year an import ban was imposed on Google’s Motorola Mobility devices when leading software developing company Microsoft filed a suit against the company with US ITC to block its imports. Now on Friday, July 12th Microsoft has filed a suit against the U.S. Customs in which the company has accused them of not enforcing the ban on Motorola devices. According to Bloomberg’s report, Microsoft has claimed that the search engine giant had arranged “secret meetings” with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to make sure that Motorola devices will continue to come over the borders.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection, after having secret meetings with Google, continued to let the Motorola Mobility mobile phones enter the country even though Google has done nothing to remove the feature at the heart of the ITC case, Microsoft said in the complaint. The case illustrates what Lexmark International Inc. (LXK) and Lutron Electronics Co. in May called an “increasingly ineffective and unpredictable enforcement” of import bans imposed by the trade agency.”
It is expected that the courts will “hear Google’s appeal in the original patent case on August 6 in Washington,” according to 9to5Google. However, the lawsuit which Microsoft has filed on July 12th is likely to come into play during the trial. Nevertheless, Google still can compensate Microsoft by paying it for the license of the patent under discussion that is related to Exchange Active Sync technology of Redmond-based company or the Mountain View-based company could try to work around the copyrights.
When ITC first imposed an import ban on Motorola devices, the company said that it “has taken proactive measures to ensure that our industry leading smartphones remain available to consumers in the US.” Under the ruling of ITC following devices of Motorola Mobility were covered under the ban: the Motorola Atrix, Charm, Backflip, Cliq, Bravo, Cliq 2, Defy, Cliq XT, Droid 2, Devour, Droid Pro, Droid 2 Global, Droid X2, Droid X, Flipside, Flipout, Xoom and Spice.
In response to this new filing from Microsoft, Google has not issued any statement so far, but the latest development is likely to hurt the business of Motorola Mobility in the U.S. On top of it, Google is all set to launch the first flagship smartphone of Motorola, the X Phone, under its supervision and rumours suggests that the handset is likely to see the first light in August. So if Microsoft drags the new device in the patent lawsuit it can put Google in serious jeopardy.
Source: 9 To 5 Google
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