The US International Trade Commission rejected Motorola's patent claim that attempted to block the import of some Apple iPhone products into the US. The ITC dismissed Motorola's claim that accused Apple of infringing on patented technology that makes touch screens ignore fingers when people are holding their smartphones up to their ears during a call.
Lisa Barton, the acting commission secretary, indicated the investigation into the Motorola complaint filed in 2010 was terminated. The ITC explained that the technology being considered in the patents was not original enough to support an accusation.
The patent wars between tech giants like Google, Apple, and Samsung have been battling for market supremacy in the booming areas of smartphones and tablets. The question then become, what will these companies focus more on in order to achieve market power? Will they continue litigating and fighting tooth and nail to assert injunctions, license technologies, and undermine one another through the patent litigation system? Or will they use this regulatory system to boost innovation and beat each other out by simply being better than the last?
Just last month, a judge cut $450 million from a $1 billion award to be paid by Samsung in a major patent lawsuit from Apple, claiming that the jury had wrongly calculated the damages. I wonder if these mini victories of receiving damages is a sustainable solution to generating profits or if companies will begin to focus on other revenue streams that don't rely on litigation.
I wrote about a similar topic. Google's Motorola patents are facing a difficult time materializing any patent wins. This is becoming a growing problem for Google. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI think this issue is a little sensitive and hard for Google to deal with considering Motorola.
ReplyDeleteYou raised something interesting questions; i firmly believe the "patent war" will continue for quite some time.
ReplyDeleteAnd since we're on the topic of interesting questions, here's one: does Apple's phenomenal public relations effect how they are treated in legal proceedings?
Indeed, Google's expensive acquisition of Motorola's patent bank is becoming increasingly unhelpful than originally thought.
ReplyDeleteYet again we see an example of Google's poor decision of buying Motorola. Motorola's patent portfolio seems much better on paper than it is in reality. Google has to make some major reforms and bring about a change in its strategies to incorporate this information about Motorola's patents being inadequate.
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