Judge says Apple request for Google, Motorola documents too 'vague'

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014


A U.S. Circuit Judge has told Apple to "narrow its request" for information on Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility and the development of Android.



Earlier this month, Judge Richard A. Posner granted Apple's request to obtain information from Google and Motorola. The Cupertino, Calif., company had argued that "the Android/Motorola acquisition discovery is highly relevant to Apple’s claims and defenses" in its litigation against Motorola.



Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Judge Posner denied Apple's production request on Monday because it wasn't specific enough.



“The motion is vague and overbroad and Motorola’s objections are persuasive,” he wrote.



In a filing last Friday, Apple told the court that Motorola had not yet complied with the original request. According to the report, Motorola had emailed Apple "objecting to the scope" of the information requests.



“If Apple desires a further court order compelling production of data within the scope of the March 5 order, it will have to narrow its request to a manageable and particularized set of documents,” Posner said.



Posner has scheduled two trials between Apple and Motorola for this June. The first will address six patent infringement claims brought by Apple and the second will examine three patents from Motorola.



The legal disagreement between the two companies has expanded across multiple cases in several different countries. Late last week, a German court upheld a Motorola-sought injunction on Apple's push services that affects the company's iCloud product in the country. Back in the U.S., the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a final ruling last Friday that Motorola had not infringed on three of Apple's patents.



Google is in the process of clearing the last obstacles to its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola. Last month, European Union and U.S. regulators approved the deal. According to regulatory filing by Motorola, the company expects the merger to go through in the first half of this year, though it is awaiting approval from China.



Assuming the deal is approved, Motorola will bring 17,000 patents and 7,500 filed patents with it to Google. The search giant has said that it was compelled to acquire Motorola and strengthen its patent portfolio because of "anticompetitive threats" from Microsoft and Apple.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    dickprinterdickprinter Posts: 1,060member
    Soooooo, why is the review article thread closed?
  • Reply 2 of 11
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Wait, didn't Motorola demand every single Apple patent earlier? And didn't Samsung demand something similar? That's prior ruling, isn't it? Apple's request is nowhere near that comprehensive.



    Quote:

    ?it will have to narrow its request to a manageable and particularized set of documents,??



    Okay, how about 'everything involving the Google merger pertaining to the patents from this case' and 'everything prior to the Google merger involving the patents from this case'?
  • Reply 3 of 11
    I'm completely switched to Apple products......I'm done with any crap Google and Motorola have to offer.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    "Assuming the deal is approved, Motorola will bring 17,000 patents and 7,500 filed patents with it to Google. The search giant has said that it was compelled to acquire Motorola and strengthen its patent portfolio because of "anticompetitive threats" from Microsoft and Apple."



    That's 24,500 patents. What does that work out per patent?



    It seems to me that the Apple-led group bought the Nortel patents for a whole lot less.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tundraBuggy View Post


    I'm completely switched to Apple products......I'm done with any crap Google and Motorola have to offer.



    I'm especially wary about letting Google have any access to any more of my information than possible. It's bad enough they collect it, but their new privacy policy allows them the right to share any info they have in any way they want.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post


    "Assuming the deal is approved, Motorola will bring 17,000 patents and 7,500 filed patents with it to Google. The search giant has said that it was compelled to acquire Motorola and strengthen its patent portfolio because of "anticompetitive threats" from Microsoft and Apple."



    That's 24,500 patents. What does that work out per patent?



    It seems to me that the Apple-led group bought the Nortel patents for a whole lot less.



    I read somewhere that price per patent the Nortel Acquisition Team paid more...but I may be wrong.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AbsoluteDesignz View Post


    I read somewhere that price per patent the Nortel Acquisition Team paid more...but I may be wrong.



    That's a meaningless metric.



    A weak 15 year old patent is worth only a tiny fraction of a brand new, strong patent.



    Furthermore, a large number of the Motorola patents are encumbered by FRAND, although that's probably true of Nortel, as well.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    mac_dogmac_dog Posts: 1,066member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tundraBuggy View Post


    I'm completely switched to Apple products......I'm done with any crap Google and Motorola have to offer.



    awesome!
  • Reply 9 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    That's a meaningless metric.



    A weak 15 year old patent is worth only a tiny fraction of a brand new, strong patent.



    Furthermore, a large number of the Motorola patents are encumbered by FRAND, although that's probably true of Nortel, as well.



    time will tell how weak they are...but there are probably a disproportionate number of FRAND encumbered patents...



    stupid Motorola...inventing the tech that actually allows these things to work.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AbsoluteDesignz View Post


    time will tell how weak they are...but there are probably a disproportionate number of FRAND encumbered patents...



    stupid Motorola...inventing the tech that actually allows these things to work.



    Yes, stupid Motorola.



    Developing technology, then freely offering it up with and agreeing to (and knowing full well) FRAND constraints, then backtracking by reneging on those constraints to attempt to "screw over" someone that comes along that is more successful.



    How stupid is that to now open themselves up (along with Samsung's actions) to investigation of possible FRAND abuse and anti-trust.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    Regulators from European Union mentioned Google acquisition over Motorola but somehow the EU Commission delayed the deadline stating the necessity to review additional document that Google needs to submit. However, the delay seems not beneficial on the part of Google.



    for more information visit : http://techsitio.com/gadgets/google-...orola-mobility
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