A German regional court ruled in a hearing on Thursday that Motorola Mobility infringed Microsoft patents by offering the option on its mobile phones to send a longer text in a batch of several messages.
"We're pleased the court agreed today that Motorola has infringed Microsoft's intellectual property, and we hope Motorola will be willing to join other Android device makers by taking a license to our patents," Microsoft said in a statement, referring to Google's Android operating system for mobile phones.
Motorola, which was recently bought by Google, said: "We expect a written decision from the court on June 1 and upon review, will explore all options including appeal."
The two companies are fighting each other in courts across the globe, as are several other makers of devices including Apple, over the intellectual property of software features offered in the latest smart phones and gadgets.
In another case, the same regional court in the city of Munich on Thursday rejected a complaint by Microsoft against Motorola Mobility's use of a software feature called programme localisation.
Motorola Mobility, in turn, is currently suing Microsoft in the U.S. over features in the Xbox gaming console.
© Thomson Reuters 2012