“In early July, the Mannheim Regional Court held two trials on Apple lawsuits against Motorola Mobility and Samsung over EP2098948, a multi-touch event model patent, and scheduled decisions for today in the Motorola case and for September 21 in the Samsung case,” FLorian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents. “I went to the court, but there has been a rescheduling. The decision concerning Motorola will now come down on the same day as the one on the Samsung case, i.e., in three weeks.”
“There can be situations in which the same patent targeting the same technology — in this case, we’re talking about the Android operating system itself — is adjudged differently by the same court in parallel lawsuits involving different defendants,” Mueller writes. “For example, one party may fail to bring certain infringement or invalidity contentions in time. But based on how those two trials went, there is no obvious reason why the two cases might have different outcomes. And the consistent outcome is more likely than not to be a finding of non-infringement.”
“A three-week delay is no big deal in the greater picture,” Mueller writes. “By comparison, Apple obtained a highly favorable jury verdict against Samsung in California a week ago, but the court is unwilling to consider Apple’s request for injunctive relief before December, with a decision possibly not even coming down before the end of the year.”
Much more in the full article here.
I just hope Tim Cook isn’t wimping out in his talks with Larry Page. There is no reason for Apple to roll over and play dead to anyone. No more Proview scam concessions.
Unfortunately there seems to be a real mixed bag around the world with these initial Apple lawsuits. Their seems to be little motivation to punish Google or cripple Android. Too many people now own them now and really don’t want to see Apple slow further adoption of their innovations. Too many people, including judges, have been sold on the erroneous idea that protecting Apple’s inventions stifles innovation. How anyone can reach that conclusion defies logic, but it has taken root. Since these original trials began, Apple has obtain a slew of additional patents on other iOS technology. Apple has obviously waited to see how this first group of cases faired. Whether the new Apple patents are being utilized by others I don’t know, but it is certainly possible that a new round of suits may erupt if there are no agreements and cross licensing agreements reached between Cook and Page. Android is not going away. That is clear. So it is best for all parties now to reach some business deal and move forward. Lawsuits, while at times necessary, are a diversion from Apple’s core business, and I’d rather be reading news about cool new products than the sliminess of Samsung and Google attorneys spewing well reported lies and misrepresentations about Apple’s motives for these lawsuits. My take is that the Apple is losing the PR war, even if they are in the right.