Saturday, June 16, 2012

Apple v. Motorola - Judge Posner Grants Apple's Request for Hearing on Injunctive Relief

Apple and Motorola were scheduled to go to trial in June 2012. In brief, Apple claims that Motorola Droid and Xoom tablet infringe on its patents, while Motorola counterclaims that Apple infringes on one of Motorola's cellphone patent which appears to be a standard essential patent subject to FRAND.

Surprising many court observers, Judge Posner canceled the court date about a week ago, because he had concluded the parties had not proven a basis for a remedy. At that time, Judge Posner noted it was a tentative decision, but he would prepare a full opinion in case he changed his mind.

On June 13, Judge Posner changed his mind granting Apple's request of June 7 for a hearing on injunctive relief on June 20. Judge Posner noted the parties should be prepared to address the eBay factors and the possibility of a reasonable royalties as a substitute for injunctive relief as well as the issue of FRAND.

Here is a link if you are interested in Judge Posner's order of June 13, 2012.

Many readers know this, but just in case I note Judge Posner, handling this at the trial level, normally sits on the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which does not handle US patent appeals. Yet, Judge Posner is one of the most respected judges in the USA and has written extensively on antitrust, IP and other legal topics so it is nice he changed his mind so we can get his views on these patent topics.

Copyright © 2012 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.