Motorola Mobility did a 180 today and filed a motion with the ITC to withdraw its second complaint against Apple. This infringement complaint was filed in mid-August and includes seven non standard-essential patents covering messaging and multimedia application control. A few weeks ago, the ITC announced it would formally investigate the complaint and assigned Administrative Law Judge Theodore Essex to the case yesterday.
Given the litigious relationship between Android handset makers and Apple, this move by the Google-backed Motorola is surprising. The two companies did not reach an agreement as the motion says that “there are no agreements between Motorola and Apple, written or oral, express or implied, concerning the subject matter of this investigation.” Though Motorola hasn’t said why it dropped the suit, some legal analysts believe it could be a sign that talks between the two companies are improving. It could also be a legal maneuver by Motorola to drop the claims at the ITC, where it believes it may lose, and reassert them in a federal court.
[Via FOSS Patents]