ITC Judge Wants to Ban Xbox 360

Microsoft's Xbox 360 should be banned from import and sales in the United States for violating Motorola patents, a U.S. International Trade Commission judge ruled.

According to ITC Administrative Law Judge David Shaw, Microsoft's entertainment console violates four Motorola patents relating to secure wireless communication and transmission of video content between controller devices and game consoles. Shaw had made his initial ruling against Microsoft in April, and now recommends that the ITC prevent the sale of the console with a cease-and-desist order. He also suggested that Microsoft post a bond equal to seven percent of the declared value of unsold Xbox inventory already in the country. The recommendation is limited to the 4GB and 250GB versions of the Xbox 360 S console.

In a statement, Microsoft said the ruling "is the first step in the process leading to the Commission's final ruling and has no immediate effect on the availability of Xbox 360 in the U.S. We remain confident the Commission will ultimately rule in Microsoft's favor in this case and that Motorola will be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms."

According to Court House News Service, Microsoft also argued that Shaw's exclusion order does not serve the public interest as it would leave consumers of video game consoles with only two options to satisfy their needs: the Sony Playstation and the Nintendo Wii. Shaw countered that the public interest in enforcing intellectual property rights is his priority. He also added that Microsoft's argument did not prove that its competitors were incapable of meeting the public need.

Shaw's ruling still faces approval or modifications from the ITC's board of commissioners. Said decision must be made by August 23. If there an agreement completed with Shaw, it must still be signed off by the Obama administration within 60 days.

Motorola filed its initial complaint with the ITC in November 2010, alleging that Microsoft's console utilized Motorola-developed technology that allows set-top boxes to decode transmissions between its Droid2 and DroidX mobile devices.     

This is the latest in a series of battles between the companies. Earlier this month a federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked an attempt by a judge in Germany to ban sales of several Microsoft products that were found to infringe on Motorola's video-compression technology. Motorola had sued Microsoft for the patent infringement in Germany. Meanwhile, Microsoft won its own import ban against 18 Android Phones by Motorola, in a separate patent infringement ruling by the ITC.