Software giant Microsoft is celebrating after a federal appeals court told the US International Trade Commission to reconsider a ruling that gave Google a victory in a patent dispute. The ITC found that the Google unit Motorola Mobility did not infringe a Microsoft graphical interface patent. Microsoft appealed the decision in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which found that the ITC erred in its reasoning.

After a critical discussion of the ITC judge's reasoning, the appeals court said: "This conclusion requires reversal of the 133 patent non-infringement judgments." However, it did agree with the ITC that Motorola Mobility had successfully changed its smartphones so they no longer infringed the patent. It also said that the ITC was correct in ruling that Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google during the legal fight, did not infringe three other patents.

Motorola Mobility said it removed the infringing software from its phones, but Redmond said that it hadn’t. Microsoft said it was happy with the appeals court decision. The ITC is shut down thanks to the federal government being closed so it will be a while before anything else is sorted out.