Judge James L. Robart

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Microsoft is seeking to transfer Motorola’s appeal of Judge Robart’s RAND ruling from the Federal Circuit to the Ninth Circuit.  Specifically, last Thursday, Nov. 21, Microsoft filed in the Federal Circuit a motion to transfer to the Ninth Circuit and today, Nov. 25, Microsoft filed a companion motion to terminate Motorola’s appeal through a transfer…

Today Judge Robart issued an Order certifying a Rule 54(b) judgment in the Microsoft v. Motorola case where he had issued a first of its kind RAND rate ruling on Motorola H.264 and 802.11 standard essential patents (SEPs) and sustained the jury verdict that Motorola breached its RAND obligations in offering a license to Microsoft. …

Reminder (and correcting some email notices) that the Essential Patent Blog and Kelley Drye & Warren LLP will host a complimentary webinar on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 12pm Eastern to discuss the import of Judge Holderman’s Oct. 3 RAND opinion in the Innovatio IP Ventures Patent Litigation and comparison with Judge Robart’s RAND methodology from…

Please join the Essential Patent Blog and Kelley Drye & Warren LLP for a complimentary webinar on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 12:00pm Eastern to discuss the import of Judge Holderman’s recent RAND decision in the In re Innovatio IP Ventures, LLC Patent Litigation.  Judge Holderman’s October 3rd decision is only the second U.S. district…

Yesterday, Judge Robart issued an Order that denied Motorola’s motion to overturn the jury’s verdict that Motorola breached its RAND obligations in dealing with Microsoft on standard essential patents (SEPs) for IEEE 802.11 WiFi standards and ITU H.264 video compression standards. Judge Robart’s ruling here indicates that assessing compliance with a RAND obligation is a…

Yesterday marked the start of the long-awaited Microsoft-Motorola RAND breach of contract jury trial, taking place before Judge James L. Robart in the Western District of Washington.  Over the next week or so, the jury will hear testimony on whether Motorola breached its IEEE- and ITU-related RAND obligations through its licensing negotiations and course of…

A month ago, we discussed how Microsoft and Motorola filed dueling summary judgment motions in an attempt to eliminate some of the issues from the upcoming RAND breach of contract jury trial in Seattle (currently set to begin August 26).  Judge James L. Robart held an oral argument on July 31, and this morning, his order hit the docket (the order is actually dated yesterday — Judge Robart is apparently not taking Sundays off).

[2013.08.11 Order on Microsoft-Motorola SJ Motions]

As you can tell from the title of this post, Judge Robart granted summary judgment on some — but not nearly all — of the issues briefed by the parties.  Both Microsoft and Motorola prevailed on some issues and lost on others.  The bottom line is that the jury will still have a lot to decide in this case.  After the jump, we’ll take a look at how Judge Robart ruled — starting with the motions that he denied.


Continue Reading Two weeks ahead of Microsoft-Motorola jury trial, summary judgment ruling reduces the issues (but only a little bit)

Earlier this week, we caught up on summary judgment motions filed by both Microsoft and Motorola in advance of next month’s breach of contract jury trial, set to take place in Seattle.  Yesterday, both parties filed reply briefs in support of these motions:

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Later this summer, the second phase of the Microsoft v. Motorola RAND breach of contract trial will take place in Judge James L. Robart’s courtroom in Seattle, WA.  A jury will decide whether Motorola breached its SSO-related RAND licensing obligations by offering what Microsoft deems “blatantly unreasonable” licensing terms for its 802.11- and H.264-essential patents, and then following up with patent infringement suits.

In a prior summary judgment order, Judge Robart already concluded that in order to be permissible under its RAND obligations, Motorola’s license offers “must comport with the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing inherent in every contract.”  He noted that this inquiry is heavily fact-intensive, and best left to the jury to decide.  To this end, Judge Robart recently requested that both Microsoft and Motorola present background briefing on the parameters of what is required by the duty of good faith and fair dealing in contractual disputes.  This week, the parties complied with this request:

Both parties acknowledge that the issue of good faith and fair dealing is complicated — but understandably, the parties also differ quite a bit in their views on what should be considered.  After the jump, we’ll take a brief look at the filings.


Continue Reading In Microsoft-Motorola RAND dispute, “good faith and fair dealing” is in the eye of the beholder