Motorola Inc. has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Robotics Inc. in a Boston federal court, alleging infringement of patents pertaining to advanced, high-speed data modem technology.
The companies said they have been negotiating the issue for months, but were unable to reach an agreement. U.S. Robotics said “Motorola continued to demand more than reasonable compensation for its alleged intellectual property.” U.S. Robotics said it intends to vigorously defend its patent claim.
The intellectual property at issue involves technology for the V.34 modem standard supported by the International Telecommunications Union. The V.34 standard allows the transmission of data at 28.8 kilobits per second to 33.6 kbps, U.S. Robotics said.
A day before filing the complaint against U.S. Robotics, Motorola settled a case with Rockwell International Corp., which also involved V.34 modem technology patents. Rockwell reportedly agreed to license portions of the technology from Motorola.
Motorola said several proprietary 56K modem technologies include a return path based on the V.34 standard, and that this use may also require a license from Motorola.
Skokie, Ill.,-based U.S. Robotics designs, manufactures and markets remote access servers, enterprise communications systems and modems that connect computers over analog, digital and switched cellular networks.
