On October 29th, Apple filed two lawsuits against Motorola, alleging Motorola infringed several of Apple’s multi-touch technology patents. Multi-touch technology is a vital part of Apple’s products; it is integrated into the hugely popular iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
This is just the latest in a flurry of recent legal actions between the two companies. In early October of this year, Motorola filed three separate patent infringement lawsuits (copies of the complaints are available at the following links: Lawsuit 1, Lawsuit 2 and Lawsuit 3) against Apple, alleging Apple infringed on a variety of its technology patents. A week later, Motorola filed a Declaratory Judgment against Apple, inspiring speculation that because licensing negotiations between the two technology giants had failed, Motorola was filing as a purely offensive strategy.
Motorola released a statement addressing the lawsuits, which reads in part that “[a]fter Apple’s late entry into the telecommunications market, [Motorola] engaged in lengthy negotiations but Apple has refused to take a license. [Motorola] had no choice but to file these complaints to halt Apple’s continued infringement.” Though Apple may have entered the telecommunications industry long after Motorola, worldwide it has a larger volume of phone production than Motorola. This is in large part to the surge in popularity of smartphones, such as the hugely popular iPhone.
Many other lawsuits are currently active in the mobile device industry. Apple currently is also in lawsuits with Nokia, HTC, Kodak and Elan. Motorola is engaged in a patent infringement lawsuit with Microsoft. This trend is likely to continue as smartphone manufacturers capture a bigger part of the market and traditional cell phone manufacturers must keep up with new technology to remain relevant. As one commentator succinctly characterizes the situation, “[t]echnology companies like this often push the envelope when it comes to using technologies that might be patented by competitors, but since it happens so often, a sort of mutually assured destruction prevents things from flaring up. Unfortunately, the nuclear holocaust of lawsuits seems to have begun.”
Will the Motorola-Apple lawsuit upset the status quo of mobile device innovation? Whether it is really “the nuclear holocaust of lawsuits” or just another skirmish that will quickly end in settlement or a renegotiated licensing agreement remains to be seen.
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