Motorola Patent | "Motorola seeking 2.25% of Apple's mobile sales for 3G patent use"

By: Jose Vilches
Source: http://www.techspot.com 
Category: Motorola Patent 

Motorola has been causing some trouble for Apple in Germany recently, with the company winning and injunction on iCloud and enforcing a previous ruling that required the Cupertino giant to pull some iPhone models from stores in that country. The sales ban only lasted a few hours as Apple managed to win a suspension later in the day. Now, some new details have surfaced regarding the ongoing battle.
According to recently uncovered court documents from Motorola Mobility's legal complaints against Apple, the handset maker is seeking 2.25% of Apple's sales of wireless devices in exchange for a patent license covering its intellectual property. Should the company win its case, it stands to receive nearly $2.1 billion in retroactive fees from iPhone revenues since 2007, which amount to just under $93 billion. That's before factoring in 3G enabled iPads.
At issue in this particular case is a 3G/UMTS patent owned by Motorola that has previously been declared essential in implementing open industry standards and thus the company must license it under FRAND (“fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms to any competitor that requires it.
Apple contends that the 2.25% fee is excessive -- something that Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents agrees with -- and has filed motions to obtain information from several other handset vendors, including Nokia, HTC, LG, and Sony Ericsson, presumably to find out how much they're paying in royalty fees to Motorola.
If Apple can prove Motorola has abusively wielded its FRAND patents then it could not only escape the sales injunction in Germany, but throw Motorola in the middle of an an antitrust investigation with the European Commission. The EC is already investigating Samsung over potential antitrust behavior for the same thing.
On the other hand if the courts decide that Motorola's licensing proposal is reasonable, Apple would have to decide between letting its cost structure take the hit or possibly having to negotiate a cross-licensing deal that could grant Motorola -- and by extension Google -- access to some of its own patented innovations.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/47335-motorola-seeking-225-of-apples-mobile-sales-for-3g-patent-use.html

Motorola Patent | "Motorola sues Apple over patents, probably with Google's blessing"

By: LA Times
Category: Motorola Patent

Motorola Patent News

The power of mobile technology: Never before have consumers been able to hold so many lawsuits in their hand.
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. has just thrown another baton in the smartphone lawsuit parade that has stretched to courtrooms across the globe, as phone-makers sue one another over similarities in their mobile devices, which are packed with patent-protected circuits and widgets from dozens of companies.
Motorola has  filed suit against Apple Inc., purveyor of the mega-blockbuster iPhone (the device lifted Apple to $46 billion in sales in its most recent quarter).  Apple is an increasingly bitter rival of Google Inc., which agreed to buy Motorola in August, a deal that is still awaiting regulatory clearance.
As patent observer Florian Mueller noted, Google probably had to approve Motorola's lawsuit, given that part of the buyout terms appear to forbid Motorola from filing lawsuits without Google's explicit permission.  Google has not directly sued or been sued by Apple in this matter -- the two compaies are fighting their legal war by proxy.
Phones that run Google's Android operating system have collectively outsold the iPhone, and Apple is none too happy about that.  The Cupertino electronics maker has initiated a flurry of lawsuits against Android phone manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics and HTC Corp., alleging that the companies "slavishly copied" the iPhone's signature look.
But Apple is finding that big legal wins are hard to come by.
Now Motorola is trying to make things even more difficult for its rival. In its second action against Apple in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida, the company wants the court to ban iPhone sales.  Motorola alleges that Apple devices infringe on six of its patents, including one for a phone with a "concealed antenna," and another about keeping data on "multiple pagers" synchronized.  Motorola, as children of the 1990s will recall, made a lot of pagers -- they still do.

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/motorola-sues-apple-over-patents-likely-with-googles-blessing.html

Motorola Patent | "Motorola fends off Apple's patent attack, Microsoft next"

By: Ed Oswald
Source: http://betanews.com
Category: Motorola Patent


Is Apple a victim of its own success? After a considerable string of patent wins in the courts against Android through much of 2011, the tide has turned. The International Trade Commission ruled that Motorola Mobility does not infringe on three patents that Apple sued over in October 2010.

Motorola filed an ITC complaint at that time targeting the Macbook, iPad, and iPhone. Apple retaliated by filing a suit of its own, accusing the Libertyville, Ill. phone manufacturer of infringing on its own patents, two of which deal with touchscreen technology.

Administrative Law Judge Theodore Essex wrote in a notice that he had found no infringement by Motorola on the referenced patents, which effectively ends the case. Apple may appeal the ruling, but with an outright rejection it appears unlikely that the company will have much success.

"We are pleased with today's favorable outcome for Motorola Mobility", general counsel Scott Offer says in a statement.

All is not necessarily lost for Apple. It did win a mixed judgement from the ITC over its patent claims, and is waiting for additional rulings against HTC as well as Samsung.

Motorola finds itself still entangled in a patent battle with Microsoft. There, Motorola is accused of not paying royalties for licensed technology. Both companies filed claims with the ITC, and an administrative judge found last month that Motorola infringes on one Microsoft-held patent while clearing it of claims on seven others.

Both companies are appealing the decision. A judgement for the Redmond, Wash. company will give Microsoft a stake in almost every Android phone sold today: it holds licensing agreements covering 70 percent of current devices on the platform.

That said, with Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility, Android's patent position has become considerably stronger. Motorola holds one of the strongest mobile patent portfolios in the industry, and has so far successfully used these patents to fend off Apple and Microsoft's patent attacks.

Now with the courts siding with the company, Motorola's position becomes stronger. Is it Apple's and Microsoft's patent Waterloo?

Maybe.

Source: http://betanews.com/2012/01/16/motorola-fends-off-apples-patent-attack-microsoft-next/

Motorola Patent | "ITC gives Motorola the early win in patent fight with Apple"

By: Jacqui Cheng
Source: http://arstechnica.com
Category: Motorola Patent


Apple has suffered an early loss in its patent suit against Motorola. An administrative law judge (ALJ) with the International Trade Commission (ITC) issued an initial ruling late on Friday, saying that Motorola did not violate three of Apple's smartphone patents. The decision signals potential trouble for Apple, though it still faces the approval of a six-person ITC panel.
Apple and Motorola have been embroiled in a series of lawsuits both in federal court and with the ITC since 2010, when Motorola first accused Apple of violating a wide range of its patents covering 3G, GPRS, and 802.11 technologies, antenna design, proximity sensing, and device synchronization, to name a few. As is typical for these patent disputes, Apple immediately responded with its own countersuits, claiming that Motorola's Android-based smartphones were infringing on Apple's own intellectual property.
Friday's ruling isn't yet the final word from the ITC, and the panel doesn't always rule the same way as the ALJ. Still, the decision is an indicator that Apple's IP fight against Android may not be as easy as former Apple CEO Steve Jobs might have hoped when he said he hoped to "go thermonuclear war" against the platform. Though Apple has not commented publicly on the initial ITC ruling, Motorola was quick to send out a victorious statement for its early win.
"We are pleased with [Friday's] favorable outcome for Motorola Mobility," Motorola Mobility general counsel Scott Offer said in a statement. "Motorola Mobility has worked hard over the years to develop technology and build an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio. We are proud to leverage this broad and deep portfolio to create differentiated innovations that enhance the user experience."
This is the second recent setback Apple has faced when it comes to its mobile patents and Motorola—the first one came in December when a German court issued an injunction against Apple over one of Motorola's cellular data transmission patents. Apple did, however, recently win an ITC ruling against another Android smartphone maker, HTC, with the manufacturer facing a potential import ban on its Android-based devices starting in April of this year. Still, HTC claims it has already figured out how to remove the offending features in its devices, so it's unlikely that HTC's smartphones will actually be banned from import into the US anytime soon.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/01/itc-gives-motorola-the-early-win-in-patent-fight-with-apple.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Motorola Patent | "Motorola wins German patent case ruling against Apple "

By: Reuters
Source: http://www.firstpost.com
Category: Motorola Patent

Motorola Patent

Motorola Mobility (MMI.N) won a preliminary injunction against Apple Inc (AAPL.O) in Germany, which could bar the sales of iPhones and iPads in the country.

A regional German court in Mannheim ruled on Friday that Apple Sales International — European sales subsidiary of Apple in Cork, Ireland — must stop selling or distributing mobile devices that infringe certain Motorola patents.

The ruling, which relates to cellular communications patents, could bar the sales of all Apple products that use the patents such as iPhone 4 and iPad 3G, Germany-based patent expert Florian Mueller said.
“The ruling targets Apple’s European sales organization but relates only to that entity’s sale to German customers,” Mueller added.

Motorola Mobility said it has been negotiating with Apple and offering the company “reasonable licensing terms and conditions since 2007.”

Motorola Mobility “will continue our efforts to resolve our global patent dispute as soon as practicable,” it said in a statement.

To enforce the injunction, Motorola Mobility has to pay about 100 million euros as bond.
Apple, which has other patent infringement cases pending in Germany, said it plans to appeal.

“We are going to appeal the court ruling right away,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said. “Holiday shoppers in Germany should have no problem finding the iPad and iPhone they want.”

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/tech/motorola-wins-german-patent-case-ruling-against-apple-153542.html