Motorola Drops Suit Against Rockwell, Sues U.S. Robotics

September 10th, 2007

After announcing that it dropped a two-year-old lawsuit with Rockwell
International, Motorola yesterday said it has filed a new suit against modem maker and Rockwell archenemy U.S. Robotics.

Motorola filed a complaint against U.S. Robotics in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, claiming infringement on Motorola’s patents regarding high-speed modem technology, company officials said. U.S. Robotics officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

These patents pertain to technology found in the International Telecommunications Union’s V.34 standard, and could also apply to the V.34-style return paths that are used in the new 56-kilobits-per-second modem technology, they said.

Motorola announced that it had settled its suit with Rockwell, which was filed in 1995 and also related to patents regarding V.34 modem standards.

The complaint against U.S. Robotics comes at a particularly bad time for the company, which this week is expected to begin shipping its 56-kbps modems that use its own x2 technology to reach high speeds. The x2 is not compatible with Rockwell’s 56-kbps modem chip technology, which Motorola chose to endorse for use in its own products.

This technology endorsement, and Motorola’s legal about-face to take issue with U.S. Robotics instead of Rockwell, comes at a particularly good time for Rockwell. As both national and international standards bodies begin to form specifications for the 56-kbps standard, Rockwell and U.S. Robotics are pitching their own technology as a basis for the final standard.

Motorola’s endorsement bodes well for Rockwell, as one factor in deciding which technology becomes standard and which company has the greater market share for its 56-kbps product.

U.S. Robotics claims 70 percent of Internet service providers worldwide support its modems, while Rockwell claims that 75 percent of the world’s personal computer modems contain its chip sets.

Officials declined to say whether Motorola’s decision to support Rockwell’s 56-kbps technology was a condition of settling the lawsuit. Arrangements for royalty payments also were not disclosed.

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