“Apple and Google haven’t yet buried their respective hatchets over the patent litigation between them, but evidently they are willing to put them aside for a moment in the hopes of negotiating a broader peace,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.
‘A new court filing in the pair’s infringement case reveals that Apple and Google have been discussing the idea of resolving their dispute over standard essential patents via arbitration,” Paczkowski reports. “Earlier this month, the companies exchanged proposals about hammering out some sort of global licensing agreement over standard essential patents, and both seem to agree that binding arbitration is the way to go.”
Paczkowski reports, “The patents Google acquired through its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility haven’t exactly proven a formidable weapon in the smartphone patent wars. Indeed, the patent portfolio Motorola first brought to bear in many of its cases against Apple has largely been winnowed down to standard essential patents the company is obligated to license on FRAND (fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory) terms. And the fact that Google is using them as a weapon in these battles at all is drawing a lot of unwanted regulatory scrutiny ahead of the company’s imminent showdown with the FTC.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Standard-essential patents and design patents (which Apple is trying to protect in courts worldwide) are two different animals. The Android faction is wielding SEPs because they have nothing else of value. Apple isn’t abusing FRAND, Google and their minions are; they don;t have a leg to stand on.
It’s as if Google stole Apple’s patented wallet design by copying it, offering it for free to their partners in crime, and then, when sued by Apple, defenseless Google et al. countersued because at some point they acquired the patent to making money compartments in wallets the size of U.S. currency.
The only thing that successful arbitration would accomplish is finally get FRAND terms applied to the Android faction’s SEP patents as they should always have been. Barring a comprehensive settlement, the infringement of Apple’s design patents and/or trade dress by Google and their Android partners would remain in the courts, where Apple has already shown they can win and win big.
Getting SEPs resolved will be a win for everyone except lawyers.