On Saturday, Motorola announced it is suing Apple for patent infringement internationally and it filed on Friday. The docs are as yet unavailable and Motorola has not as yet said what specific patents it holds that are so powerful that they could stop U.S. imports of Apple tech from China or elsewhere.
Despite the dearth of information, Motorola reps are talking a lot of smack but without the docs the words are empty.
Google/Motorola reps only say the merged firms now hold seven patents that every Apple device excepting the Apple iPod and iPod touch, infringe in some way. Whether Google/Motorola has initiated talks to license the patents or if Apple refused an offer is unclear.
Reps for Google/Motorola and Apple were not available early Saturday a.m. for comment.
All we know about the patents is that they cover, Motorola says, such fundamental smartphone functions as mobile video streaming, email notifications, location-based service and even functions of Apple Siri.
They also largely are empty words at this point. Without the court docs or specific named patents in question, it is almost impossible to measure the implication here. Our patent experts on staff will take a look at the Google/Motorola patents when courts reveal them tomorrow.
A close look is necessary a half dozen or more tech companies hold patents in such areas. So such fundamental patents, if they do hold water, will have to be ironclad. Conflicting and overly broad patents are, experts tell aNewDomain.net, an underlying cause of the multi-billion dollar patent tech wars the industry is seeing today.
It’s TechNow with Gina Smith, a daily two-minute tech news show that spotlights one of the day”s stories and analyzes it. The show runs at midnight PT seven days a week. Syndicated by aNewDomain.net and brought to you by SoundCloud. Seven nights a week. It’s still in its first 10 episode beta series. Suggestions and daiy topics welcome. ED
UPDATE AUGUST 19: Google recently posted The Motorola Story as part of its series of Google Apps in the enterprise. But the video is interesting from the standpoint of understanding exactly what Google is planning for its shiny new division. Google didn’t start out with a huge patent portfolio, so the 17K patents (not patent applications, as I said incorrectly in the video) for Google offensively and defensively.
Here’s the video.
I wonder which of arm of Moto is doing this. Is this the Google acquired Motorola mobility arm?
More stones a thrown as usual in patent warfare?
-RAP, II