Potential bad news for Microsoft was delivered in a preliminary ruling in which the court ruled that Xbox 360 does, in fact, infringe on four patents owned by Motorola. Judge David Shaw announced the findings, but it is still subject to review by a panel of six judges.

Motorola is seeking a whopping 2.25% of the final price for any Microsoft product that uses its patents. These patents deal with the H.264 video codec and the Wi-Fi technology that the Xbox 360 uses. Apparently, one unspecified claim regarding one of the patents was tossed by the court.

Microsoft has been seeking a far more reasonable arrangement. The company claims that Motorola needs to license its standard patents on far more reasonable terms. It would seem that this ruling is a blow to Microsoft. There is no word yet on how the companies will proceed, but a settlement is perhaps likely, according to experts that we have spoken with. Expect more legal wrangling before this is all said and done.