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''Motorola Mobility v. Apple Inc.'' was one of a series of lawsuits between technology companies Motorola Mobility and
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
In the year before Apple and Samsung began suing each other on most continents, and while Apple and High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) were already embroiled in a patent fight, Motorola Mobility and Apple started a period of intense patent litigation. The Motorola-Apple patent imbroglio commenced with claims and cross-claims between the companies for
patent infringement Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
, and encompassed multiple venues in multiple countries as each party sought friendly forums for litigating its respective claims; the fight also included
administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), a ...
rulings as well as
United States International Trade Commission The United States International Trade Commission (USITC or I.T.C.) is an agency of the United States federal government that advises the legislative and executive branches on matters of trade. It is an independent, bipartisan entity that analyze ...
(ITC) and European Commission involvement. In April 2012, the controversy centered on whether a FRAND license to a components manufacturer carries over to an equipment manufacturer incorporating the component into equipment, an issue not addressed in the Supreme Court's default analysis using the
exhaustion doctrine The exhaustion of intellectual property rights constitutes one of the limits of intellectual property (IP) rights. Once a given product has been sold under the authorization of the IP owner, the reselling, rental, lending and other third party comme ...
in '' Quanta v. LG Electronics''.Stern, Richard
Standardization Skullduggery Never Ends: Apple v. Motorola
, IEEE Micro, ipv6.ppk.itb.ac.id, 2012-3/4, B2-9mmi2012020003.3d 10/3/012 16:48 p. 3. Accessed 2012-4-13. Stern cites
Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc.
', 128 S. Ct. 2109, 2008; accessed 2012-4-13. The ''Quanta'' case cited the 150-year-old doctrine of patent exhaustion which limits patent rights that survive the initial authorized sale of a patented item.
In June 2012, appellate judge
Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicago ...
dismissed the U.S. case with
prejudice Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's perc ...
and the parties appealed the decision a month later.


Motorola Mobility's suits

In early October 2010, Motorola Mobility filed a
complaint In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...
with the ITC against Apple alleging patent infringement.''Motorola Mobility, Inc. v. Apple Inc.'', ''In the Matter of Certain Wireless Communication Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing Devices, Computers and Components Thereof'', ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-745, 2010-10-6. The complaint allegations concerned six Motorola patents, and sought remedies of a court-ordered bar on U.S. imports of infringing products, and an
injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in ...
prohibiting Apple from importing, marketing and distributing infringing products. The ITC instituted its investigation a month later and Motorola subsequently dropped its patent claims with respect to two of the six patents at issue.Form 10-K Annual Report
Motorola Mobility, Inc., 2012-2-17, pp 37-38.
Motorola also filed two complaints for patent infringement against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Illinois Complaints), and another complaint for patent infringement against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Florida Complaint). Both complaints alleged Apple infringed 18 Motorola patents. In November 2010, Motorola voluntarily dismissed the Illinois Complaints, (asserted as
counterclaim In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against th ...
s in the actions brought by Apple on October 29, 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin). Later that November, Apple also filed counterclaims in the Southern District of Florida, alleging Motorola infringed six Apple patents in manufacturing and selling mobile devices,
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
es and
digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct ...
s. Additionally, in October 2010, Motorola filed a complaint for a declaratory judgment against Apple and NeXT Software, Inc. in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, seeking a ruling that Motorola did not infringe any claim of twelve patents owned by Apple and NeXT. In response, in early December 2010, Apple asserted these twelve patents against Motorola, Inc. and Motorola Mobility, Inc. in the Western District of Wisconsin and moved for a change of venue from Delaware to Wisconsin. Ultimately, both parties' patent assertions were subsequently transferred to the Northern District of Illinois. This led the way for Apple to take charge over Motorola, Samsung, LG, and many other cellular communications companies.


Apple's counter-suits

In late October 2010, Apple filed two complaints in the Western District of Wisconsin for patent infringement against Motorola, Inc. and Motorola Mobility, Inc. The complaints alleged Motorola infringed six patents and sought money damages and an injunction. In early November 2010, Motorola filed counterclaims against Apple alleging Apple infringed twelve Motorola patents which Motorola originally asserted in the Northern District of Illinois. The Western District of Wisconsin transferred the actions to the Northern District of Illinois and trial was scheduled for June 2012 on six Apple patents and three Motorola Mobility patents. Also in late October 2010, Apple filed a complaint with the ITC for patent infringement against Motorola, Inc. and Motorola Mobility, Inc. Apple's complaint alleged Motorola infringed three Apple patents with Motorola's mobile devices offered in the U.S.. Apple's complaint sought a court order barring imports of those devices and sought an injunction prohibiting Motorola from engaging in further activities related to the same mobile devices. The ITC began investigation in late November 2010; in mid-January 2012, the
Administrative Law Judge An administrative law judge (ALJ) in the United States is a judge and trier of fact who both presides over trials and adjudicates claims or disputes involving administrative law. ALJs can administer oaths, take testimony, rule on questions of evi ...
(ALJ) found no violation by Motorola for the three asserted Apple patents; Apple filed a petition to review the ALJ's findings but the ALJ ultimately ruled for Motorola and against Apple in mid-March 2012.Campbell, Mikey
Final ITC ruling clears Motorola of Apple patent infringement
appleinsider.com, 2012-3-17. See also th
ITC's ruling
in the case ''Apple v. Motorola'', 337-TA-750, 2012-3-16.
In mid-March 2011, Apple filed counterclaims against Motorola in the ITC proceeding (which was subsequently removed to the Western District of Wisconsin court), and instituted a new action in the Western District of Wisconsin, ''Apple Inc. v. Motorola Mobility, Inc.'', alleging that Motorola breached standards commitments (see Context, below), with counterclaims including
equitable estoppel Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from ...
, waiver, breach of contract, violation of Section 2 of the
Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. T ...
,
unfair competition Unfair may refer to: * Double Taz and Double LeBron James in multiverses '' fair''; unfairness or injustice * ''Unfair'' (drama), Japanese television series * '' Unfair: The Movie'' * Unfair (song), a song by South Korean boy group EXO