“Motorola could be forced to pay up to $16.2 billion in guaranteed compensation if the company ultimately loses its patent dispute with Apple in Germany, as the $2.7 billion figure the iPhone maker was quoted as seeking in November has been clarified as a yearly estimate,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“In a hearing on Friday, Apple made clear that it estimates a bond of $2.7 billion per year will cover the losses suffered if Motorola prematurely enforces possible injunctions on iCloud that are later overturned, according to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents,” Campbell reports. “He goes on to say that a lawyer on Motorola’s legal team mentioned the case may last until 2018, potentially making the $2.7 billion yearly bond worth $16.2 billion.”
Read more in the full article here.
Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents, “The end of the process means that the ruling (or a subsequent appellate decision) can no longer be appealed, or it is appealed but the next higher court isn’t willing to hear the appeal, or a party doesn’t exercise its right to appeal (or withdraws its appeal.”
“I don’t know if anyone ever enforced a ruling against a multi-billion bond in Germany. But given what’s at stake between these litigants on a global scale, it’s not entirely impossible that it might happen in this case,” Mueller writes. “I could also see Apple post huge bonds to enforce German rulings against its rivals, depending on the overall circumstances.”
Read more in the full article here.
Cool! Hopefully they don’t get a liberal judge!
You are an idiot, a complite IDIOT!!!
Apple will never win anything against Motorola or Android smartphones. So far, Apple has been flummoxed by Android OS on every front. Steve might have tried to patent everything, but he must have missed out on all the important patents that would be able to effectively block Android smartphone sales. Now Android is running wild with no boundaries in sight. Android is beating down every platform with only iOS barely managing to gain tiny increases in market share. What would have been a fertile playground for Apple, Android smartphones have turned into a wasteland. Apple really messed up by letting Android clone iOS without impunity.
Sarcasm Alert!
Sadly, most of it is true. Apple should have been much more aggressive before Android became so huge.
Unfortunately, because of the speed ( or lack thereof ) mant of the patents that apple was depending on got approved too late.
When MDN cites Florian Mueller, I always visit his website and read the full text of his analysis … to benefit from his insights and predictions about likely court decisions.
Though I have few doubts about Mueller’s legal analysis, he doesn’t consider the public relations aspect of Apple’s suits against the other device makers. Many consumers are fed up with and don’t respect companies that copy the breakthrough products of others, and intellectual property lawsuits draw attention to that issue regardless of the final outcome of the case, which take months if not years to reach.
In the case at hand, Mueller says that Apple is unlikely to gain much (if anything at all) by asking the courts to uphold its design patents, and argues that it should focus on enforcing its more technical software patents, which he considers significant/substantial.
On a legal basis, I have little doubt that he’s right. However, Apple may nevertheless benefit in The Court of Public Opinion by highlighting the fact that Apple is the leader in designing and developing new-age smartphones, while Android device makers frequently piggyback on Apple’s work. Articles have noted that many consumers (not only in the USA but in China and South Korea) are sensitive to this issue. It is one of the reasons that Apple is considered a leading-edge, luxury device worth $200-300 more than lookalike phones from Samsung, HTC and others.
Apple could always make that point in commercials, but running commercials in 100+ countries would be far more costly than hiring a few patent attorneys for a few months — and in any event, commercials age given far less credence than court cases.
Also, by consistently and aggressively dragging copycat device makers into court, Apple creates uncertainty which confuses and delays their efforts to launch new products. Even a one-month delay in the launch of a new Android phone could result in (say) 100,000 more iPhone sales. Assuming a $250 profit margin (just a guess), that would add $25 million to Apple’s bottom line.
My comments have focused on Apple, but much the same can be said of the other device makers. They bring suit not only to win on the merits of their patents, but also to undermine the public perception that they’re ripping off the efforts of a superior company and its products.
So all in all, the patent lawsuits have a dimension not examined by Mueller and other intellectual property experts. If no more were at stake than patent rights, then out-of-court agreements on royalties would bring most of the disputes to a quick resolution. The fact that they aren’t being quickly and privately settled suggests that something far more substantial is motivating Apple.
Surely Apple has considered these issues and has estimated their impact on its bottom line. It would be interesting to see a more complete analysis of these matters (with specific unit and dollar figures) to get the bigger picture.
If Apple gets banned in any country the black market will explode!