Google loses bid to overturn low-cost patent licenses to Microsoft

That's it: A US appeals court has ruled that Google will have to be content with the lower licensing rate Microsoft is to pay to use Google's Motorola Mobility patents. Photo: Reuters

NEW YORK: In a setback for Google Inc, a US appeals court ruled that the low licensing rate Microsoft Corp pays to use some of Google's Motorola Mobility patents had been properly set. 

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a lower court judge properly determined the patents' value even though the royalty rate was only a fraction of what Motorola had asked for. Google sold the Motorola handset business to Lenovo last year but kept its patents.