“With a U.S. trial starting tomorrow (Monday, July 30), Apple’s dispute with Samsung will likely dominate the headlines over the next several weeks, but from a strategic point of view, Apple’s dispute with Motorola Mobility is even more important in light of that company’s recent acquisition by Google, the maker of Android,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
“Google’s Motorola Mobility wants to be entitled to injunctive relief (also against Microsoft in parallel lawsuits) unless a court or the ITC determines that it broke its FRAND pledge — and Motorola also wants courts or the ITC to look at its counterparts’ willingness or unwillingness to negotiatef,” Mueller reports. “In other words, unless someone negotiates under Motorola’s preferred parameters (Hobson’s choice, basically), he’s an unwilling licensee, and that’s an accusation that Apple refutes in its responsive brief. ‘Over the last few years, Apple consistently maintained its willingness to enter into a [F]RAND license and has sought to persuade Motorola to accept a [sic] [F]RAND terms. That Apple has refused to accede to Motorola’s unfair demands does not make Apple an ‘unwilling licensee.’ Apple has concluded cross-licenses with many companies in the wireless industry, and stands ready to execute an agreement with Motorola if Motorola were to comply with [F]RAND.'”
Mueller reports, “In March, a European Commission document confirmed that Apple, according to its own representations, refused to grant Motorola a cross-license involving Apple’s non-SEPs. Also, when Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the most recent edition of AllThingsD’s D10 conference, he made a clear distinction between SEPs and non-SEPs, said he’d like to settle those assertions of SEPs against Apple, and stated that Apple ‘can’t be the developer for the world.’ A cross-license deal between Apple and Motorola Mobility may involve some or all of Apple’s non-SEPs, but in connection with the ITC investigation of Motorola’s complaint against Apple, all that matters is that Apple is not an unwilling licensee: it wants a license to Motorola’s SEPs, but as long as Motorola demands a 2.25% royalty based on the entire market value of Apple’s products, there won’t be a deal.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]