Bangalore: Google’s acquisition of the handset manufacturer Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, which included 17,000 patents, is making sense to the critics now. The search giant had started putting its licensing tactics to defend patent fees over patent infringement by Apple and Microsoft.  

Apple and Microsoft are complaining about excessive royalties over the patents which are basic to how mobile devices work. The trials took off in Madison, Wisconsin, yesterday, and will be held coming week in Seattle. The regulators in U.S. and Europe are to investigating whether Motorola Mobility is misusing its patents to take on with competitors in $219 billion Smartphone market.  

The courts will seek to define the licensing obligations of the Patent holders over technological specifications they have rights on.

“The judge may step in and say, ‘Motorola Mobility, you have to grant a license and here’s the royalty rate and some other terms,’” said Jorge Contreras, an associate law professor at American University in Washington to Bloomberg.

“This would be the first time this has ever been done. I get the feeling these two judges feel there is no chance these parties will come to a reasonable conclusion on their own and the judges want some finality,” he added.

The patent suit filed by Motorola Mobility at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, could ban imports on Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft’s Xbox video-gaming system, raising concerns over both company’s consumer electronics market share.