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BY EVAN THOMAS
ANCHOR NATHAN BYRNE
That’s one way to settle a patent disagreement. The Verge reports federal judge Richard Posner
completely dismissed Apple v. Motorola on Friday.
It was an ongoing patent dispute that had been running since 2010. Apple claimed Motorola
was in violation of four of its patents, and Motorola claimed Apple was violating one of
its own. The Verge reports Posner appeared frustrated with the lack of any progress.
The ruling makes official what Posner floated back in the first week of June. According
to the Los Angeles Times, Posner said neither party was able to prove sufficient damages
to justify a trial.
And as All Things Digital reports, Posner’s opinion on the “ridiculous” case hasn’t
changed much.
“Throughout his order Posner repeatedly skewers Apple and Motorola and their legal
teams for the weakness of their arguments, mistakes in trial preparation, flights of
‘wild conjecture’ and their utter failure to present enough evidence to create a triable
issue.”
GigaOM agrees with Posner, saying — there was no way Apple had been harmed by Motorola.
“As a common sense argument, this holds water: Apple is currently the most valuable
company in the world thanks to the runaway success of the iPhone and the iPad, while
Motorola is a barely profitable smartphone company that was quite grateful to be rescued
from dire straits by Google’s desire for Android patent protection.”
Posner’s ruling has shut this chapter of intellectual property debate, but FOSS Patents
wonders if it will contribute to lasting patent peace the way Posner wanted it to.
“Lawmakers and judges alike can only make decisions in their own jurisdictions, but
here we are talking about global disputes. Companies pursuing injunctive relief are going
to increasingly file their lawsuits in jurisdictions that don't have the Common Law notion of equitable
discretion.”
FOSS Patents says a trend toward deweaponized patents could be underway within a few years.
Until then, Apple and Motorola will keep at it. The two companies have litigation pending
in various foreign courts and at the International Trade Commission.