Apple Sues Motorola Mobility in California Over German Case

Apple filed suit against Motorola Mobility in a San Diego court on Friday. At issue are patents licensed by Motorola from Qualcomm. Apple argues that a German lawsuit filed by Motorola violates the terms of that licensing agreement.

 

Apple vs. Motorola

Reuters reported that this lawsuit is targeted at Motorola and accuses the company of discarding their intent to license their essential patents under FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms.

Apple’s stance is that it is a customer of Qualcomm, not Motorola, and that Motorola’s license agreement is with Qualcomm and doesn’t extend to Apple. This is very similar to a suit between Apple and Samsung, also in a German court, where Samsung retracted such claims.

 

It is expected that Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility will win approval next week from both U.S. and European regulators. Earlier this week, Google stated its intent to license patents acquired from Motorola under FRAND terms.

Google promised to cap its fees at 2.25% of the selling price of a finished phone and gave guidelines for when it would chose to pursue lawsuits for patent infringement.