A US trial involving Microsoft and Google’s Motorola unit begins today and could clear up a common topic of contention in recent patent battles.

The firms dispute how much should be paid for a licence to use innovations necessary to be able to offer industry standard technologies.

Google is claiming its rival should pay up to $4bn (£2.5bn) a year for its connectivity and video coding patents.

Microsoft suggests they should be offered for just over $1m a year.

The case, to be heard in Seattle, may set a precedent for how such intellectual property rows should be settled.

It will also have a bearing on Google’s attempt to block Microsoft’s Xbox games console and other products from sale in the US and Germany.

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