Apple received a serving of strong legal news when it was ruled on Friday that Samsung indeed infringed on Apple’s patents, and has been ordered by the jury to pay Apple over $1 billion dollars. While Apple has spent the last few months suing the Korean company Samsung for patent infringement, Motorola Mobility, who is now owned by Google, has filed some complaints of their own against Apple Inc.
In June, Google’s Motorola Mobility filed complaints with the U.S International Trade Commission, citing a previous ruling and attempting to get most Apple products banned from sale within the United States. Recently Google’s Motorola Mobility unit filed yet another patent infringement complaint with the ITC.
The International Trade Commission issued the results of its review on Friday, and found that Apple had not infringed on 3 or the 4 patents for which Motorola Mobility had filed their complaint. The ITC sent the 4th patent back to the judge for review on whether it has been infringed upon or not. While this assertion is somewhat mixed, the over all news is looking well for Apple, and would add-on to the list of its recent litigious successes. Apple should still be wary, as the ITC has the right to block Apple from importing products from Asia, which is what Motorola Mobility is hoping for.
A Motorola spokesman had this to say. “Motorola was one of the earliest mobile phone innovators, and much of Apple’s success builds on our foundational work. We’re considering our options as we continue to push for patent peace.” Filing lawsuits with the ITC can hardly be seen as seeking peace, but only time will tell.
This marks just another entry in the slew of legal issues that Apple has been having with fellow Tech-giant companies. ITC has submitted one of the 4 patents for further review by a judge, which still contains the potential to achieve an import ban on Apple products.
The full International Trade Commission report can be found here.