With the US International Trade Commission set to decide whether to ban imports of Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console, a team of rivals including Apple, Nokia, Intel, Activision, HP, and Cisco have written to the ITC pleading that it not stop sales of the product. Numerous members of the US House of Representatives weighed in on Microsoft's behalf as well.

An ITC administrative law judge recently recommended that the commission ban the 4GB and 250GB versions of the Xbox console, due to the violation of standards-essential, video-related patents held by Motorola Mobility, which is now a division of Google. With a final decision pending, an IP attorney representing Apple, Mark Davis, wrote to the commission on June 8, saying that Motorola committed to license patents under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND), but is circumventing FRAND requirements in suing Microsoft (as well as in suing Apple in similar cases).

"Apple respectfully submits that any exclusion order directed against Microsoft would significantly undermine the standards-setting process and frustrate the purpose of FRAND," Davis wrote (Scribd link). More testimonials on the Xbox's behalf came from Activision, Nokia, HP, Cisco, and Intel, all saying the public interest outweighs the concerns of Motorola.

Numerous members of the US House of Representatives filed letters opposing an Xbox ban as well. US Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), for example, wrote that an import ban would be inappropriate because it would be based on standards-essential patents, and harmful because it would exclude the only video game console created by a US company from the market. The letter, along with others from Reps. Dave Reichert (R-WA), Lamar Smith (R-TX), and Sue Myrick (R-NC), are date-stamped June 8 and were released on the ITC documents site today.

Motorola won a ruling that Microsoft infringes four patents (links to the patents here), which relate to the H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 video coding standards, and the 802.11 WiFi standards. In its defense, Microsoft pointed out that in getting patented technology accepted into industry standards, Motorola "committed to the IEEE, ITU and ISO standards bodies that their essential patents are licensed on non-discriminatory bases offering fair and reasonable terms."

Separately, Microsoft also won an ITC import ban ruling against Motorola Android devices that infringe Microsoft patents—but Microsoft asserted patents that hadn't been pledged to industry standards, and thus aren't encumbered by FRAND obligations.

Members of the Illinois Congressional delegation (Motorola's home state) led by Danny Davis (D-IL) spoke out mildly in favor of an Xbox import ban in a letter to the ITC, not specifically naming the Xbox but saying that "we strongly support vigorous intellectual property right protection, including injunctive and exclusionary relief."

The Federal Trade Commission also weighed in, as we reported last week, saying the ITC should not ban either Xboxes or iPhones. Although there seems to be no question that Microsoft infringed the patents, the majority of those filing opinions with the ITC oppose the import ban on the grounds that Motorola should never have sued with standards-essential patents in the first place.