Motorola seeks to invalidate 11 Apple iPhone-related patents
Handset maker Motorola has taken preemptive legal action against rival Apple in asking a court to invalidate 11 iPhone-related patents.
Motorola, which recently sued Apple over alleged patent violations, filed a complaint last week with a U.S. District Court in Delaware. The complaint seeks to invalidate a total of 11 patents awarded to Apple and NeXT Software, both companies founded by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs.
The preemptive strike notes that Apple has a "history of asserting" that handsets running Google's Android mobile operating system violate the 11 named patents. Motorola's suit notes that Apple's lawsuit against handset maker HTC, filed earlier this year, includes those patents.
The complaint asserts that Motorola is not infringing on the patents in question, and also attempts to prove to the court that the granted patents are invalid.
The patents specifically named in the lawsuit are:
U.S. Patent No. 5,455,599: "Object-oriented graphic system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,519,867: "Object-oriented multitasking system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,566,337: "Method and apparatus for distributing events in an operating system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,915,131: "Method and apparatus for handling I/O requests utilizing separate programming interfaces to access separate I/O services"
U.S. Patent No. 5,929,852: "Encapsulated network entity reference of a network component system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647: "System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data"
U.S. Patent No. 5,969,705: "Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program"
U.S. Patent No. 6,275,983: "Object-oriented operating system"
U.S. Patent No. 6,343,263: "Real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data"
U.S. Patent No. 6,424,354: "Object-oriented event notification system with listener registration of both interests and methods"
U.S. Patent No. RE39,486: "Extensible, replaceable network component system"
Earlier this month, Motorola sued Apple, alleging that the iPhone maker has infringed on patents it owns. The lawsuit was filed through a subsidiary, Motorola Mobility Inc., with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Motorola Mobility has accused Apple of violating a total of 18 patents it owns, related to a range of technologies including 3G, GPRS, 802.11 wireless, and antenna design. Specifically named Apple products include MobileMe and the App Store.
Given the numerous lawsuits and countersuits filed with the ITC involving Apple, it is likely that the iPhone maker will respond in kind to Motorola with a lawsuit of its own. In addition to legal battles with Motorola and HTC, Apple is also at odds with Nokia and Kodak.
Motorola, which recently sued Apple over alleged patent violations, filed a complaint last week with a U.S. District Court in Delaware. The complaint seeks to invalidate a total of 11 patents awarded to Apple and NeXT Software, both companies founded by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs.
The preemptive strike notes that Apple has a "history of asserting" that handsets running Google's Android mobile operating system violate the 11 named patents. Motorola's suit notes that Apple's lawsuit against handset maker HTC, filed earlier this year, includes those patents.
The complaint asserts that Motorola is not infringing on the patents in question, and also attempts to prove to the court that the granted patents are invalid.
The patents specifically named in the lawsuit are:
U.S. Patent No. 5,455,599: "Object-oriented graphic system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,519,867: "Object-oriented multitasking system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,566,337: "Method and apparatus for distributing events in an operating system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,915,131: "Method and apparatus for handling I/O requests utilizing separate programming interfaces to access separate I/O services"
U.S. Patent No. 5,929,852: "Encapsulated network entity reference of a network component system"
U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647: "System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data"
U.S. Patent No. 5,969,705: "Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program"
U.S. Patent No. 6,275,983: "Object-oriented operating system"
U.S. Patent No. 6,343,263: "Real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data"
U.S. Patent No. 6,424,354: "Object-oriented event notification system with listener registration of both interests and methods"
U.S. Patent No. RE39,486: "Extensible, replaceable network component system"
Earlier this month, Motorola sued Apple, alleging that the iPhone maker has infringed on patents it owns. The lawsuit was filed through a subsidiary, Motorola Mobility Inc., with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Motorola Mobility has accused Apple of violating a total of 18 patents it owns, related to a range of technologies including 3G, GPRS, 802.11 wireless, and antenna design. Specifically named Apple products include MobileMe and the App Store.
Given the numerous lawsuits and countersuits filed with the ITC involving Apple, it is likely that the iPhone maker will respond in kind to Motorola with a lawsuit of its own. In addition to legal battles with Motorola and HTC, Apple is also at odds with Nokia and Kodak.
Comments
Motorola has found out that they can not compete, so they are suing. Any other companies that legitimately have a case try to negotiate. Not Motorola. They can see that they are becoming irrelevant.
Isn't that what you do in patent related suits? Firstly, you argue there is no infringement because the patents are invalid. Logically this is the best thing to do because if the patent is invalid there is nothing to infringe. Then you argue that your own device does not fall within the claims of the patent.
Motorola are choosing not to wait for an infringement trial. I don't see what the issue is. You can read between the lines but they're essentially arguing what they would have done in any case.
/sigh
I reckon the mobile wars are going to have an interesting effect on the future of lawsuits and patents.
There is no court with the technical capacity and historical knowledge to determine the validity in this mess.
Most significantly all these cases are not based on infringement of IP, they are based on market share complaints (tantrums) that then look for excuses.
Riiiight.... you know Motorola, the company which is sooo incredibly innovative that they invented.... (crickets chirping)
Six Sigma?
I think Motorola will have a hard time suing around anything to do with Object Oriented graphics, as Apple and NeXT were using them before Motorola even knew what a mobile phone was.
Patents are getting ridiculous these days. Apple (and others) somehow think you can patent 'intuition' or 'structure'. And then sue some other maker that uses input methods, etc., which are similarly 'intuitive', or digital organization methods that are 'structured'. It's like McDonald's suing Burger King because Burger King puts a meat patty and cheese between 2 halves of a bun.
Is THAT what they're putting between that bun? I wondered what it was!
These are very fundamental patents and I find it more than unlikely that they would succeed, but that they go the route of saying "this shouldn't be patenteed" versus "this is our IP and they used it", which is what they are doing with their other lawsuit.
"Nothing to loose" tactic?
But no, they crippled ROKR with a 100-song max and horrendously bad interface. Steve Jobs
said the absolute minimum about ROKR, and Apple refused to promote it. That unpleasant
experience obviously triggered Apple's in-house development of the iPhone.
More evidence to support my theory that the best way for two companies to become mortal
enemies is to work on a joint high-profile project. Sooner or later (instantaneously in the case
of Apple + Motorola = ROKR) the companies long-term orthogonal goals will cause a painful
breakup. Happens almost every time.
Motorola is probably still hurting over the fact that they could have been the iPhone maker.
But no, they crippled ROKR with a 100-song max and horrendously bad interface. Steve Jobs
said the absolute minimum about ROKR, and Apple refused to promote it. That unpleasant
experience obviously triggered Apple's in-house development of the iPhone.
More evidence to support my theory that the best way for two companies to become mortal
enemies is to work on a joint high-profile project. Sooner or later (instantaneously in the case
of Apple + Motorola = ROKR) the companies long-term orthogonal goals will cause a painful
breakup. Happens almost every time.
Besides the 100 song limit the ROKR was a piece of crap phone. Motorola took an existing phone and tried to shoe horn iTunes on it. And you needed a microSD card to store the song on. The card and the SIM were held in place by metal tabs that broke off every few days.
Zander tried to convince Steve Jobs that it was a "great" design. Thank god Steve did not listen to him else we would all be listening to music on a Wp5.5 phone.
Six Sigma?
I think Motorola will have a hard time suing around anything to do with Object Oriented graphics, as Apple and NeXT were using them before Motorola even knew what a mobile phone was.
Huh? Motorola was in the cellular phone business long before Apple was, well, hardly anything.
Motorola is probably still hurting over the fact that they could have been the iPhone maker.
But no, they crippled ROKR with a 100-song max and horrendously bad interface. Steve Jobs
said the absolute minimum about ROKR, and Apple refused to promote it. That unpleasant
experience obviously triggered Apple's in-house development of the iPhone.
More evidence to support my theory that the best way for two companies to become mortal
enemies is to work on a joint high-profile project. Sooner or later (instantaneously in the case
of Apple + Motorola = ROKR) the companies long-term orthogonal goals will cause a painful
breakup. Happens almost every time.
I always wondered about the ROKR. It seems to me that Apple forcing Moto to limit it to 100 songs would be more likely as it would keep it from hurting iPod sales. I see no reason why Moto would want that artificial cap. What argument and/or proof is there that Moto is the one that limited the number of tracks.
What is motorola?
Desperate to catch up.
Riiiight.... you know Motorola, the company which is sooo incredibly innovative that they invented.... (crickets chirping)
The first cellular phone & cellular network. Back then, it was still analog, and Max Headroom was selling Pepsi to a new generation. But that was a long time ago. Back to the Future predicted we would have flying cars and hoverboards by the year 2015.
I just wish all these firms would try to win by creating better products and not simply try to block the competition.
Motorola has found out that they can not compete, so they are suing. Any other companies that legitimately have a case try to negotiate. Not Motorola. They can see that they are becoming irrelevant.
Relax, nuisance patent lawsuits have no merit; they are just a form of trade negotiation, a kind of chess game played by corporate patent attorneys to justify their existence. The goal is to get the other side to either drop their suit or sign a cross-license deal. Either way, the attorneys make off like bandits.