Microsoft filed an antitrust suit against InterDigital on Thursday, claiming that the Delaware company demanded Microsoft pay too much to license patents essential to implementing mobile phone technologies, Reuters reports.
Microsoft recently won a case against Google over Motorola patents with a similar argument.
This new suit represents the company’s next chance to cement an emerging legal precedent that may limit the amount electronics manufacturers must pay to license the key ingredients for standardized technologies. It’s been a closely watched issue in the tech industry, as these legal precedents have the potential to affect future licensing negotiations.
Thursday’s suit comes after years of legal wrangling between Microsoft and InterDigital. InterDigital has long claimed Microsoft’s Nokia phones infringe on its patents, and the U.S. International Trade Commission is scheduled to issue a decision on that matter later this month.
So while InterDigital is arguing in one court that Microsoft didn’t license patents it should have, Microsoft is arguing in another court that InterDigital’s licensing price was unlawfully high.
At the heart of Microsoft’s claim are standard-essential patents, or SEPs.
Manufacturers adopt industry standards, like the size of headphone jack, in order to make products from different brands compatible. But by doing so, the companies who own the standard-essential patents could potentially charge more in licensing fees because everyone needs access to their technology.
In order to encourage cooperation, the courts and industry groups have established limits on those licensing fees.
In order to win its case, Microsoft will have to show what InterDigital was asking for exceeded those limits.
Microsoft won with this argument against Google after a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle took the unusual step of creating his own formula to determine what should be considered a fair price.
Google challenged the judge’s methodology, but an appeals court upheld the decision in Microsoft’s favor in July.
