“The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Motorola’s Droid smartphones do not violate three Apple patents, dealing a blow to Apple’s legal offensive against the Android smartphone ecosystem,” David Hamilton and Josh Lowensohn report for CNET.
“The ruling is preliminary and needs to be approved by the ITC’s full six-member commission. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment,” Hamilton and Lowensohn report. “In a press release, general counsel Scott Offer declared Motorola ‘pleased’ with the ITC’s decision.”
“Today’s decision comes after a delay in the case. The ITC originally planned to issue an initial determination by November 30, 2011, with a final decision this March.”
Read more in the full article here.
Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents, “It’s a given that Apple will file a petition for review, and the final decision, which could still be somewhat different, will be due on May 14, 2012.”
“Apple’s ITC complaint against Motorola, filed in October 2010, was its ‘smallest’ one to date in terms of relating to only three patents,” Mueller reports. “By comparison, Apple asserted nine against Nokia, ten in its first complaint against HTC, five in its second complaint against HTC, and seven (five technical and two design-related) patents against Samsung.”
Mueller reports, “Apple has many more patents in play in other litigations. For example, last month a lawsuit involving 15 Apple patents was transferred to the Northern District of Illinois, where it may go to trial later this year. Before it goes to trial, Apple will presumably narrow the case and drop some of the patents, but there are lawsuits in other districts as well (Western District of Wisconsin, Southern District of Florida, District of Delaware).”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]