Microsoft phones infringe patents: U.S. International Trade Commission judge

A man is silhouetted against a video screen with the Microsoft logo in the background as he poses with a Nokia Lumia 820 smartphone in this photo illustration taken in the central Bosnian town of Zenica September 3, 2013.

/Dado Ruvic

- Microsoft Corp lost a round in a potentially costly patent battle when a U.S. International Trade Commission judge on Monday found that the software giant used InterDigital Inc’s technology in its mobile phones without permission. The judge, Theodore Essex, said that Microsoft infringed two wireless cellular patents owned by InterDigital, a patent licensor, and said it would not be against the public interest to ban the Microsoft devices from import into the United States. The judge's decision must be reviewed by the full commission before any import ban is enacted. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)