The US International Trade Commission currently has Microsoft under investigation, following a complaint from Motorola that the Xbox 360 violates a number of patents held by the telco.
It's seemingly a response to a lawsuit filed by Microsoft earlier in the year, alleging Motorola was ripping the Xbox 360 manufacturer off with "royalties that are excessive and discriminatory" for certain pieces of technology Microsoft was licensing for use in the console.
Motorola's complaint to the ITC is a serious one: it accuses Microsoft's Xbox 360 of infringing on a number of patents it holds, and is calling for a total halt on the console's sales while the matter is sorted out. While such a move would seem highly unlikely given the severity of the penalty, it's still probably enough to ruin a few people's Christmas up at Microsoft's Redmond HQ.
The ITC will conclude its investigation early in 2011.
USITC INSTITUTES SECTION 337 INVESTIGATION ON CERTAIN GAMING AND ENTERTAINMENT CONSOLES, RELATED SOFTWARE, AND COMPONENTS THEREOF [USITC, via Slashdot]