Judge David Shaw from the US International Trade Commission may ban the sale and import of Microsoft's popular console over a patent dispute the company has with Motorola. involves the way that the Xbox handles video decoding, and a ban is already in place in .

This is only a recommendation, and the ITC would have to approve the idea before anything else could happen. Even then, the Obama administration would be the ones to sign off on the ban--something that wouldn't happen for some time.

If we've learned anything from this these last few months it's that these sorts of disputes hurt consumers more than anyone else. Let's hope that Motorola and Microsoft can reach some sort of agreement and that these ridiculous lawsuits put to rest already.