It’s back on: Judge Richard Posner announced on Thursday that Apple and Motorola Mobility would be allowed present their arguments on why they should be be granted an injunction on each other’s smartphones and tablets. The decision was the other half of a ruling turned in last week that eliminated the chance that either company could claim injury for patent infringement, and by extension get a damage award.
To get to the nitty gritty of the ruling, the judge is allowing both companies to argue that they should be entitled to an injunction if they are able to prove patent infringement. That’s an important “if,” because that part of the trial has yet to be conducted.
Judge Posner added a little spice by putting both companies on notice that they may find that they are given a “reasonable royalty going forward” rather than an injunction. In other words, the judge is quite likely to be setting a high bar for either Apple or Motorola to get the injunction they want.
But wait, there’s more: Judge Posner let Motorola specifically know that it faces a particularly high bar because the company is using FRAND patents—patents that are subject to “fair and reasonable, non discriminatory” royalties because they were submitted by the patent holder to be a standards-essential patent.
“And if Motorola means to argue for injunctive relief it should be prepared to address the bearing of FRAND on the injunction analysis,” the judge wrote in his ruling, according to FOSS Patents.
The hearing will be held next Wednesday, June 20th, at 11:00 AM EDT in Chicago (10:00 AM CDT).
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