On
Friday Google did just that, filing a patent-infringement lawsuit against Apple for the following seven patents:
5,883,580,
5,922,047,
6,425,002,
6,983,370,
6,493,673,
7,007,064 and
7,383,983. The products they are seeking an import ban on are the Apple’s iPod Touch, the iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S, the iPad 2 and the “new” iPad, as well as the Mac Pro, iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air and all other Apple devices “which utilize wireless communication technologies to manage various messages and content.” Motorola also argues Apple was fully aware of the patents in question.
The obvious worst-case scenario for Apple would be that all of their products would be banned in the U.S. until they resolve the issue. I don’t believe anyone sees the worst-case scenario happening, but it would not be surprising to see some sort of preliminary injunction until the
International Trade Commission (ITC) makes a ruling which is scheduled for August 24.
What is obviously interesting in this case, is that Apple would seem to be caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Concerning the filing, Motorola states:
“We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple’s unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers’ innovations.”
It is common practice for a manufacturer to negotiate a license with a patent holder so that they can use the invention or innovation in their products, but Apple seems unwilling to do that with anyone. Samsung also stated almost the same thing in a filing in their current court battle with Apple, that they offered in 2011 a “fair and reasonable” royalty rate for using their standards-essential mobile technology that ”is consistent with the royalty rates other companies charge.” The filing stated that Apple never made a counter-offer, but “Instead, it simply rejected Samsung’s opening offer, refused to negotiate further and to this day has not paid Samsung a dime for Apple’s use of Samsung’s standards-essential technology.” Apple replied that ”Samsung’s royalty demands are multiple times more than Apple has paid any other patentees for licenses to their declared-essential patent portfolios.” That all sounds well and good, but the percentage Samsung was asking for was 2.4% of the entire selling price of Apple’s mobile products that utilized Samsung’s technology, amounting to roughly $16 per iPhone (and roughly $350 million dollars according to court records). Apple on the other hand tried to license to Samsung back in 2010 patents that it felt were being infringed upon, with a royalty fee of $30 per smartphone and $40 per tablet.