So it seems that the fight is no longer just Apple vs. Samsung. Rather, Motorola Mobility wants to snatch up a piece of legal leverage. Filed in a Florida court this Wednesday, Motorola claims that six Apple products, including the iPhone 4S, have infringed on patents related to wireless technology, data filtering, software, and messaging. However, Apple claims that Motorola has done the same to several of its design patents. This counter was denied by the U.S. International Trade Commission last week.
So what’s their reason? For that you’ll have to look past the immediate company and look towards its owner, Google. The tech giant agreed to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in August of 2011 in hopes of gaining control of the company’s deep collection of patents. In December, Motorola won a case against Apple in Germany on a GPRS (cellular radio) patent violation, which could hinder iPhone and iPad sales in that country.
Not to mention, as Jordan Golson of Macrumors explained, Google would have to sign-off on a lawsuit before it’s filed:
The merger agreement between Google and Motorola Mobility requires the company to get Google’s permission before asserting “any Intellectual Property Right in any new Action”. As a result, this lawsuit is the closest Apple and Google have come to direct litigation.
In other words, Google might be the driving force behind all of this. Why? It wants to protect its mobile market position. If Motorola were to win, that patent leverage will carry over to Google giving it more legal insulation against Apple. However, that’s a big if as Apple is well experienced in the court of law.
