A decision on whether or not Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console should be banned from being imported into the US has been delayed. Reuters reports that the full panel of the US International Trade Commission has sent the case back to its judge for reconsideration. That could put off a decision in the case by months.

David Shaw, a judge for the ITC, had previously ruled in April that the Xbox 360 had infringed on four patents owned by Motorola regarding the use of H.264 video encoding. In May, Judge Shaw recommended that the ITC place a ban on importing the 4 GB and 250 GB versions of the Xbox 360 S consoles into the US as a consequence of the console violating Motorola's patents.

The story gives no reasons while the full ITC board would send the case back to Judge Shaw. The board was previously expected to make a final decision on the Xbox 360 patent case in August. Earlier this month, a number of companies, including Apple, Cisco, HP, Nokia, Intel and Activision, wrote letters to the ITC requesting the organization not ban the Xbox 360 from being imported to the US.

US House of Representatives member Darrell Issa (R-CA) also wrote his own letter to the ITC supporting Microsoft, saying, "An exclusion order would eliminate the only U.S. based videogame console from a market."

Posted: Jun 30, 2012 8:27 pm

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/itc-delays-microsoft-xbox-360-us-import-ban-decision