Google squares off with Microsoft on patent license trial

This year has been hot for lawsuits involving the big tech giants.

With Apple duking it out with Samsung earlier this year, Google is now battling Microsoft in court for payment for its Motorola patents.

The license in question concerns innovations Google has made in video coding and connectivity that Microsoft utilises for their products.

While Google claims that they should receive $4 billion a year (£2.5 billion) a year, Microsoft contends that a fair amount would be $1 billion.

Commentators say that this might be a part of Google’s attempts to slow and block sales of Microsoft’s products like the Xbox in Germany and America.

This is likely to be a landmark case, as the judge will make the first ever ruling concerning how much royalty rates should be in patents. The ruling will set a standard for such issues of contention, hopefully making it less necessary for companies to go to court.

It will not be the first time the titans have clashed about this issue; in 2010, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Motorola, claiming that they had failed to provide use of their patented technologies for fair rates.