Microsoft has been cleared of a longstanding patent dispute by the U.S. global Trade Commission.

Last April a trial judge ruled in favor of a patent troll InterDigital but that was overthrown by the ITC who have decided not to enforce the decision. This comes as good news to Microsoft who have been battling to compete with Samsung Electronics and Apple devices, according to Rapid News Network.

Microsoft’s spokesperson said the company was extremely grateful to the Trade Commission for stopping InterDigital from blocking their products from admittance to the U.S.

The suit was that Microsoft claimed the InterDigital was breaching the U.S. 1890 Sherman antitrust act by charging too much, typing in useless patents to essential ones, not making any products and discriminating against MS because it is a smaller partner in the bigger industry.

Thanks to their thorough defense, Microsoft was found to not be violating the patents, but it did not take on the difficulty of truthful licensing for important patents.

On Friday, InterDigital’s stock dropped 3 percent by end of day.

Microsoft is not alone in their claim as many companies take on the ITC who has ultimate authority to dam the import of products that infringe on U.S. patent.

Last month Microsoft took a $7.5 billion charge on its handset business that it purchased from Nokia last year which forced them to a record quarterly loss.

“The decision not to support the import ban would have limited repercussions, given the decline of the Nokia mobile device business under Microsoft’s control and its limited market position”, said Interdigital Chief Executive Officer William Merritt.

2007 was the first time that InterDigital, a Delaware-based company, accused Nokia of infringing its technology for optimizing a cellphone’s power to connect to a network and Microsoft was said to have use two of InterDigital’s standards-essential patents without permission as well.

 

 

Source: morningticker.com