Motorola is currently fighting Microsoft in a German court over some patents, where the court is inclined to side with Motorola. This could see Microsoft pay Motorola royalties of 2.25-percent in sales of Windows 7, and Xbox 360, among other products. The news comes from Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst who tracks worldwide patent disputes in his Foss Patents blog.

Mueller is quoted:

A short summary of today's trial (technically four trials, but organized as one because of overlapping issues) is that the court is inclined to rule, with a decision scheduled for April 17, 2012, that Microsoft Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9, the Windows Media Player and the Xbox 360 infringe on those two patents.

The two patents in question relate to a video compression and decompression technology, covering methods for reducing the amount of bandwidth required for video that is streamed online. It is said that Microsoft violated the patents which are used in its technologies and software including Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9, Windows Media Player and the Xbox 360.

It was only yesterday that we reported Motorola were seeking 2.25-percent of Apple sales, which leads me to ask:

Are Motorola the new Apple in terms of patent trolling?