“On Tuesday (January 31, 2012), Circuit Judge Posner, who is serving by designation on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to preside over an Apple v. Motorola Mobility lawsuit, entered an order that became electronically retrievable on Wednesday (February 1, 2012) and, among other things, tells the parties that there are still too many patents in play,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
“The order acknowledges that Apple and Motorola made a January 30 submission (which is not in the public electronic record, at least at this stage) that complied with a request to inform the court ‘of what patents they wish to litigate in the liability trial,’ but ‘not fully satisfactorily,'” Mueller reports. “The judge wants more ‘winnowing’ (as he likes to call the narrowing of a case by dropping patent claims) to take place.”
Mueller reports, “Whether or not there will be some further ‘winnowing’ as per Judge Posner’s request, the Chicago case involves some very interesting patents. The strongest ones of those patents could give Apple major leverage against Motorola, especially if Motorola can’t overcome Apple’s FRAND defense.”
Much more in the full article, including which patents are at stake, here.