Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Judge Slams Apple-Motorola Suit As 'Business Strategy'

Posted by timothy on from the stating-the-obvious dept.

jfruh writes "Faced with an Apple vs. Motorola lawsuit that involves 180 claims and counterclaims across 12 patents, a judge in Florida has thrown up his hands and accused both companies of acting in bad faith. Claiming the parties' were engaged in 'obstreperous and cantankerous conduct', he said that the lawsuit was part of 'a business strategy that appears to have no end.'"

3 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Motorola? by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't see how Motorola's using the lawsuit as a business strategy. They didn't file it, they don't want to be in court, and they have no choice about showing up or about what claims they have to defend against. I'm getting more and more annoyed at judges who get mad at defendants for having the temerity to stand up and defend themselves against the claims the plaintiff has made. If their defenses are meritless, then just rule so and be done with it. If they aren't meritless, then the blame for any complexity lies with the party making the claims, not the defense.

    The summary is wrong.

    It's Motorola Mobility v. Apple, not Apple v. Motorola Mobility.

    Motorola filed a lawsuit against Apple over patent violations in 2010, and expanded it in 2011 (with Google's permission as the Motorola-Google acquisition happened in the meantime) over more patents. Apple then charged Motorola (then) with patent violations as well.

      Motorola Mobility LLC v. Apple Inc., 12cv20271, U.S. District Court for the District of Florida (Miami)

  2. Re:Referee hates players for participating in game by Dishevel · · Score: 4, Informative

    Patents and Copyright are Government granted temporary monopoly's over that which has been patented or is under copyright.
    Was originally granted to spur more creation of these things to enrich the public domain.
    Problem is the temporary part has been massively subverted. Now almost nothing ever makes it into the public domain.

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  3. Re:Motorola? by Moses48 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look here for the timeline: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_wars
    This list just shows who started what:
    Nokia sues apple, apple counters, and nokia counters, etc.
    Apple sues HTC, counters, etc
    (HTC gives royalties to microsoft... WTF?)
    S3 sues Apple
    Oracle sues google, oracle fails!
    Microsoft sues Motorolla, countered etc.
    Motorolla sues Apple, countered etc.
    Microsoft sues Barnes and Nobles
    Apple sues Samsung, countered
    Microsoft grabs more royalties from those without patent arsenal (le sigh)

    And that is a little rundown of where we are at.