Microsoft has filed a complaint with EU competition authorities claiming Motorola Mobility is not offering fair licensing terms for its technology. The two companies are already involved in a number of lawsuits as Motorola seeks royalties from Microsoft for the use of its technology in products such as the Xbox games console and Windows PCs. Microsoft claims that Motorola does not respect the FRAND requirement, for licensing technology included in industry standards on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. According to Microsoft's example of a USD 1,000 laptop, Motorola is demanding a royalty of USD 22.50 for its 50 patents in the video standard H.264. The 29 companies holding the other 2,300 patents making up the H.264 standard only charge USD 0.02 for the same product. Microsoft called on Google to change the policy after its takeover of Motorola Mobility. The company noted that EU and US authorities have already signalled their intention to monitor the market and enforce FRAND licensing terms for standards-essential patent. Also, while Microsoft, Apple and Cisco have pledged to not seek injunctions against other firms' products on the basis of standard-essential products, Google refused to give such a guarantee. Apple has filed a similar complaint against Motorola with the EC, and the commission is already investigating Samsung and its licensing terms.
