It looks like another patent case has returned to the news. This case involves Motorola Mobility, or in this case Google and Microsoft. This latest decision has a judge ruling that a few of the Motorola Mobility patents are invalid. The ruling was brought down by U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle this past Thursday.

This case has Motorola looking for up to $4 billion per year for wireless and video patents. On the flip side, Microsoft had returned saying that Motorola deserves much less — in the ballpark of $1 million per year. Basically, a case where both sides are very far apart in term of a number.

As for the latest decision in this case, the judge ruled that three of the Motorola Mobility patents are invalid. The key here, only portions of these patents are invalid, which basically just means that they cannot be ruled out entirely. Specifically, as was pointed out by Reuters, Judge Robart ruled that parts of those patents are “indefinite,” which means “Motorola’s patent language did not distinctly articulate the invention.”

The remaining parts of those patents are still active in the lawsuit and a decision is expected to arrive sometime during the next several weeks. All said and done, this could be an important decision for Google who purchased Motorola for $12.5 billion giving them 17,000 patents. Should the ruling favor Microsoft, this means Google will have less bargaining power when it comes to negotiating future deals with other companies.

[via phoneScoop]