The European Commission has expanded its investigation of patent licensing in the mobile sector to Motorola Mobility. Following complaints from Microsoft and Apple, the EC has opened a formal investigation into possible antitrust violations by Motorola. The probe is similar to an investigation started against Samsung in late January and concerns whether the handset makers are meeting their commitments to license patented technology essential to mobile industry standards on fair terms. By pursuing injunctions against Apple's and Microsoft's products such as the iPhone, iPad, Windows and Xbox in court cases over alleged violations of standards-essential patents, Motorola may be in violation of its irrevocable commitments made to standards organisations such as the ETSI. Motorola as well as Samsung had committed to license those patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Motorola gave such FRAND commitments when standards were set for 2G and 3G mobile systems, H.264 video compression and WLAN. The investigation will look at whether Motorola abused its dominant market position and distorted competition through its legal actions, as well as complaints it offered unfair licensing conditions for its standard-essential patents.
