The patent battles between Apple and Motorola may have started out a bit quieter than what we first saw with Apple and Samsung, but things have really begun to heat up. The fight began when Motorola sued Apple in the US in 2010 — claiming infringement of over a dozen patents — but has since expanded to nearly every outpost around the world. There's a little bit of everything in this one: antitrust accusations, bans on beloved gadgets, potential government intervention and, of course, good old-fashioned patent infringement. We're keeping track of it all right here.
Apple vs. Motorola: patent infringement, antitrust accusations, and more
Apple again annoys Judge Posner in case against Motorola
Less than a month after publicly scorning Apple's practices in his court, renowned federal judge Richard A. Posner is again calling out Apple in its patent case against Motorola — this time with an explicit warning that it may be forbidden from filing future motions without express permission from the court. The current courtroom drama centers around a motion Apple recently filed, asking the court to stop the deposition of one of its experts. On its face, that doesn't seem particularly...
ITC judge: Apple iPhones and iPads infringe single Motorola patent
An administrative law judge at the US International Trade Commission issued a preliminary ruling today in Motorola's patent infringement case against Apple — holding that iPhone and iPad devices infringe US patent no. 6,246,697. As with all preliminary rulings at the ITC, this decision is subject to review by a full panel of ITC judges, so there won't be any immediate impact on the sales of iOS devices in the near term.
The '697 patent covers a method of generating a pseudonoise sequence in...
iCloud and MobileMe push email ban upheld by German court
The Wall Street Journal reports that a German regional court in Mannheim has upheld an earlier ruling that push email via Apple's iCloud and MobileMe services infringes on Motorola's patents. The February decision led to push email being disabled on the services ever since, despite Apple's attempts to lift the injunction. Motorola's case is based on patent EP0847654, titled "Multiple Pager Status Synchronization System and Method." The judge residing over the case adjourned a decision on a...
US court adopts Apple's broad interpretation of scrolling patent, rejects Motorola's
Apple won an important victory on Thursday against Motorola in the form of a claim construction order from US Judge Richard A. Posner, interpreting the meaning of certain claim language in Apple's US Patent No. 7,479,949 relating to scrolling behavior. While the court didn't provide a decisive infringement ruling, it did get Apple one step closer to that ultimate goal by adopting its broad interpretation of the patent. The judge was tasked this time with construing claims in the '949 patent...
ITC issues final ruling, says Motorola doesn't infringe three Apple patents
The web of patent lawsuits between Apple and Motorola may have just thinned out a strand. Back in January, Motorola Mobility received an initial ruling from the ITC regarding Apple's 2010 patent infringement claim, finding that it didn't infringe on the three patents in question. Now, the ITC is handing down its final determination, backing up the original finding and terminating the ITC's investigation into the matter. While this marks the end of the road for the Commission's current...
iCloud and MobileMe push email will remain disabled in Germany during Apple's appeal
According to the FOSS Patents blog, a German appeals court has denied Apple's bid to suspend an injunction imposed on iCloud and MobilMe push notification services in Germany. The Mannheim Regional Court ruled last month that certain Apple email services were infringing a Motorola patent (EP0847654), and Motorola began enforcing the injunction just a few weeks later.
Apple appealed the lower court ruling and had requested that the appeals court lift the injunction until a final decision is...
Apple opening patent settlement talks with Motorola, Samsung?
We've always assumed that the worldwide patent battles between Apple and Android smartphone manufacturers would end in a tidal wave of settlements, and it appears the first trickles of hope are leaking out: Dow Jones is reporting that Apple's proposed settlements with both Samsung and Motorola in exchange for license royalties on its patents. It's not the first time Cupertino's proposed a settlement in its smartphone patent litigation: Apple famously settled its patent lawsuit with Nokia by...
Slide to unlock: how Apple's patents are changing Android
Although the worldwide patent lawsuits between Apple and nearly every major Android smartphone vendor have been bitterly fought and may eventually involve government intervention, there's really no day-to-day impact on the consumer — Apple, Google, and its OEMs continue to improve and sell their devices as quickly as they can. But a quick tour through the halls of Mobile World Congress reveals that Android OEMs are rapidly learning to design around some of Apple's iPhone-related patents,...
Apple wins German sales injunction against Motorola Android products, probably won't affect anyone
Apple just won a German sales injunction against Motorola Android devices, which were found to infringe an Apple patent on scrolling behavior in the photo gallery application. It's the second major legal victory related to this patent Apple's had in the past few months; it won a similar injunction against Samsung in the Netherlands in October.
Of course, a legal victory really just means more cash for the lawyers — like Samsung, Motorola can just update its photo gallery app to work around...
Appeals court puts a stop to Motorola's ban on iPhones and iPads in Germany
Apple received some good news today in Germany in the form of a ruling from the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court stopping Motorola, at least temporarily, from enforcing a previous ban it had received on the sales of iPhone and iPad devices in the country. The device ban was initially handed down by a lower court back in December and caused Apple to remove certain iPhones and 3G-enabled iPads from its German online store for a few hours earlier this month.
Apple's main defense continues to be...
iCloud and MobileMe push email disabled on iOS devices in Germany due to Motorola lawsuit
Following a German court ruling earlier this month that deemed Apple's email sync services were in breach of a Motorola patent, the Cupertino company has decided to disable the offending functionality on iOS devices in the country. Push email to iCloud and MobileMe accounts will no longer work within German borders, although your Contacts and Calendar will continue to sync as normal. Similarly, Microsoft Exchange email sync (popularly used with Gmail accounts) and push services to desktop or...
Microsoft says Motorola and Google will 'kill video on the web' with patents, files European complaint
Microsoft announced this morning that it's filed a formal competition complaint against Motorola and Google with the European Commission, arguing that Motorola is abusing its patents committed to Wi-Fi and H.264 video by demanding excessive royalties and trying to block sales of products that include the standards. The move follows a similar complaint filed by Apple with the EU last week and an official investigation into Samsung's patent licensing practices, and serves to highlight growing...
Apple asks EU to formally investigate Motorola for alleged FRAND abuse
Motorola Mobility has confirmed that Apple filed a complaint with the EU Commission, requesting an investigation into whether Motorola is violating its obligations to license its standards-essential patents to Apple under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The EU Commission recently opened a formal investigation into whether Samsung broke EU antitrust rules by refusing to fairly license wireless patents essential to the 3G standard, but this is the first we've heard of the...
FRANDs forever: how the smartphone industry turned a gentlemen's agreement into a full-scale patent war
Until recently, patent licensing arrangements for industry standards like MPEG and 802.11 have been relatively benign and invisible to the general public. Times have changed, though, and the explosion of smartphone patent litigation has made the once unfamiliar acronym FRAND the subject of mainstream conversations. In particular, there's a major debate over the fairness of patent licenses and how patents essential to wireless standards like 3G can be used in litigation. It's a wonky and...
Apple uses slide-to-unlock patent to get ban on Motorola smartphones in Germany
The worldwide patent dispute between Apple and Motorola has been burning through the courts lately, and it just got a little more intense: the Munich Regional Court ruled today that Motorola smartphones infringe Apple's European slide-to-unlock patent. Unlike some of previous European rulings, the decision imposes a permanent injunction against Motorola devices, when or if Apple choses to enforce it after posting a substantial bond. We don't have all of the details of the ruling — it was...
Apple tries to stop Motorola patent cases in Germany, via US court
We've seen the harmonization of Apple's patent defense strategies develop against Samsung over the past several months, and now it looks like Apple is extending these strategies to its defenses against Motorola. According to a report by Reuters, Apple filed a new case in California federal court today, claiming Motorola's patent infringement cases against Apple in Germany breach Motorola's licensing agreement with San Diego-based Qualcomm. This matches up with Apple's defenses against Samsung...
Motorola faces rare setback, fails to get injunction against Apple 3G devices in Germany
Apple experienced a rare patent victory against Motorola Mobility today in Germany when a Mannheim court held that Apple's 3G devices, including the iPhone, didn't infringe European Patent No. 1053613. This particular technical patent covers a wireless system that generates a "complex pseudonoise sequence" for processing access signals. The patent claims may be a bit opaque, but it doesn't look like it really matters. Unlike most court decisions focused on a finding of non-infringement, this...
Google letter promises to license Motorola's standards patents after acquisition
Google just sent letters out to various standards organizations, including the IEEE, promising to license Motorola's patents related to standards like 3G and H.264 after it completes its planned acquisition of the company. The move doesn't signal any change in policy, but is rather a bit of well-timed showmanship by Google: Motorola already has obligations to license "essential" patents to various standards under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, but the deal is being...
Motorola gets patent ruling against Apple's email services in Germany
The Mannheim Regional Court in Germany issued an injunction this morning against Apple, ruling that certain Apple email services infringed Motorola patent no. EP0847654. The ban is apparently focused on push email features available through Apple's iCloud and MobileMe services. However, unlike a separate ban Apple faced this morning relating to certain Apple 3G devices in Germany (which has now been temporarily suspended), the effect of this ruling will not be felt immediately. Namely,...
Apple forced to remove 3G iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 from German online store (update)
Apple has been forced to remove its 3G iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4 devices from the online German Apple store today, following a dispute with Motorola Mobility. FOSS Patents reports that the decision is likely due to a ruling from December, and not related to an iCloud injunction issued against Apple Sales International today. Motorola appears to have posted a €100m ($133m) bond to enforce the ruling.
The dispute centers on a patent held by Motorola essential to the GPRS standard, and...
Motorola adds iPhone 4S and iCloud to Apple patent litigation
The ongoing patent dispute between Motorola Mobility and Apple has become almost as heated as the battle raging between Apple and Samsung. Motorola added to the mix by filing a new patent case against Apple yesterday in Florida federal court, accusing Apple of infringing six patents with its iPhone 4S product and iCloud service.
While this particular case may be new, the substance of the accusations really aren't. MMI already has a case pending against Apple, in Florida, where it has asserted...
Motorola gets initial ruling from the US International Trade Commission that it doesn't infringe Apple's patents
Motorola Mobility announced today that it has received a ruling from the US International Trade Commission relating to its patent infringement case with Apple. Apple initiated this case against MMI back in October 2010. While the details of the actual decision are not yet publicly available through the ITC website, MMI indicates that the administrative law judge at the ITC held that it didn't infringe any of the three patents Apple had asserted against the mobile devices in the case.
MMI is...
Motorola wins German patent case against Apple, can ban sales of iPhone, iPad (update: holiday sales unaffected)
Motorola's just scored a fairly big victory in its ongoing worldwide case against Apple: a German court has ruled that every iPhone up to the iPhone 4S and both 3G iPads infringe a Motorola patent held essential to the GPRS standard. (The iPhone 4S simply wasn't around when Motorola filed the case; it's likely but not certain it contains the same infringing elements.) Unlike the previous Motorola victory in Germany, this one has some actual teeth: Motorola can post a €100m ($133m) bond and...
Motorola wins German patent injunction against Apple, but it's not what it seems
The international patent wars seemed to have gotten far hotter for a moment this evening, as FOSS Patents reported that Motorola Mobility had won a German injunction against Apple that could theoretically prevent the company from selling its various products. Apple's since confirmed the report with a brief statement, but unfortunately for those of us who love late-night legal fireworks, a little more digging reveals the situation isn't at all what it first appears.
Apple is represented by two...
Google and Motorola: what are all those patents for?
Google tried to present its $12.5b acquisition of Motorola as an opportunity to "supercharge the Android ecosystem," but it's clear that the deal was equally prompted out of desire to protect Android from further patent lawsuits using Motorola's strong patent portfolio. From all appearances, it actually seems like Google was first interested in somehow licensing or buying Motorola's patents, and then decided it would be nice to spend a little more and just buy the whole damn company. Of...
Google to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion
Explosive news this morning, kids. Google has agreed to purchase Motorola's recently spun-off Mobility arm for a fee of $12.5 billion. Mobility was the name given to Motorola's consumer devices unit, which includes the Droid smartphone line and the nascent Xoom tablet range, both of which rely on Google's Android software for their operating system. Motorola was alone among the major smartphone vendors in not joining Microsoft's Windows Phone reboot and its loyalty to the Android ecosystem...
