Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola Inc., 696 F.3d 872 (9th Cir. 2012) was a United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case about Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (RAND) Licensing and foreign anti-suit injunction.
The case was originally filed by Microsoft against Motorola in the Western District Court of Washington on November 9, 2010, claiming that Motorola had violated its reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing agreement to which Microsoft was a third-party beneficiary. The district court ruled that a company's agreement with a standards organization to provide Reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms of licensing to all other parties constitutes a contract that is enforceable by third parties.
While the U.S. domestic contract litigation had been proceeding, Motorola sued Microsoft in Germany for patent infringement in July 2011. The German district court granted Motorola an injunction prohibiting Microsoft from selling allegedly infringing products in Germany based on German patent law. Then, Microsoft sought an anti-suit injunction against an injunction of patent infringement in Germany.
The district court granted Microsoft an anti-suit injunction that prevented Motorola from enforcing a foreign patent infringement injunction that Motorola had obtained against Microsoft in Germany. After granting to Microsoft this preliminary injunction, the case was brought to the Appellate court in an interlocutory appeal by Motorola. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the district court's foreign anti-suit injunction for abuse of discretion, and affirmed the District Court's decision.