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Motorola, Samsung score in legal battles against Apple

by Steven Sande Dec 9th 2011 at 2:30PM

You win a few, you lose a few. This week, Apple was up against the ropes in the patent infringement fights going on all over the world.

In Germany, Motorola won a verdict against Apple when a court in Mannheim ruled that Apple had violated one of its 3G-related patents. This could be serious for Apple, possibly banning sale of 3G devices including iPads and all iPhones prior to the iPhone 4S. What can Apple do to avoid the ban? Motorola could choose to license the patent to Apple, or Apple could decide to change future designs to get around the patents.

It's expected that Apple will appeal the loss, and it is also trying to invalidate the 3G patent and several others in a Federal Patent court in Munich. If Apple wins that case, the decision would invalidate this Motorola victory and leave it defenseless against claims that Apple has made.

Meanwhile, the Samsung/Apple fight in Australia continues. Apple had tried to get a stay on an injunction down under that would have essentially blocked the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 through the critical holiday shopping season. Australia's High Court heard arguments from both companies this morning, and decided in favor of allowing Samsung to start sales of the iPad lookalike on Monday.



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You win a few, you lose a few. This week, Apple was up against the ropes in the patent infringement fights going on all over the world
 

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6 Comments

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Klaus T Kessel

It seems large companies are always having legal battles.

December 11 2011 at 4:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iGlad

How does it come to this when all the technology companies seem to do is fight in courts about patents, we the users are the losers overall.

December 10 2011 at 7:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tetas

These are sort of old stories. The 3g patent might be disallowed because of some EU law that says patents for necessary use or something weird like that could be involved. I'm sure someone can clarify the law I'm talking about.

December 09 2011 at 3:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Tetas's comment
Brooskie

lol- I wonder if that law could could also be used for a 'rectangular shaped tablet with rounded corners''...

December 09 2011 at 5:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
steve

If this patent is actually a requirement to meet a 3G standard (that is, it is part of one of the ITU standards or some such), then it is required to be licensed under FRAND terms (fair, reasonable, and non-descriminatory). That doesn't mean that Apple wouldn't need to get a license for the patent - it means that Motorola couldn't choose to not license it to Apple under (basically) the same terms that they license it to anyone else, and those terms need to be fair and reasonable (meaning basically that they cannot have strings or be so expensive as to be unrealistic).

The linked article indicates that the major point at issue is what Apple would be on the hook for related to past violation of the patent - going forward (if Apple licenses the patent), the terms would be FRAND, but Motorola argued (and the court agreed) that there should be a substantial penalty (beyond FRAND terms) for having used the patent in the past without licensing it. That is one of the reasons Apple is pushing to invalidate the patent.

December 09 2011 at 11:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike M.

oooooh SNAP!

December 09 2011 at 3:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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