Judge recommends a sales ban on the Xbox 360 in the USA

For some time now Microsoft’s has been in a patent dispute with Motorola, but now it has just got significantly more serious.  This past month saw a ban of the  Xbox 360 and Windows 7 in Germany, but now the threat of a US ban is causing many to worry.

According to MCV ,Following up on a previous ruling, which deemed Microsoft in violation of Motorola WiFi and video codec patents, judge David Shaw, of the International Trade Commission, has now recommended against the continued sale of the Xbox 360 in the United States stating that;

“Enforcing intellectual property rights outweighs any potential economic impact on video game console buyers,”

 Judge Shaw is calling for a stop on the importing of the console (Although its an American based machine, its currently manufactured by Foxconn in China) and all sales of the current unsold stock to be blocked.

Don’t panic just yet though. Judge Shaw’s ruling simply means that for now a six-person commission will have to go in and actually review the extent of infringement, and then commission will make its final decision on May 18. And if If the ITC commissioners agree with Judge Shaw then it will have to be presented to US President Barack Obama, who will actually have the final say.

A Microsoft representative contacted IGN and stated;

“the full Commission will rule on this in August, and until that time, nothing will change.”

“The recommendation by the Administrative Law Judge is the first step in the process leading to the Commission’s final ruling. We remain confident the Commission will ultimately rule in Microsoft’s favor in this case and that Motorola will be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms.”