my blog: Apple sues Motorola over Qualcomm license, makes us dream of a world without lawyers

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Apple sues Motorola over Qualcomm license, makes us dream of a world without lawyers

There are literally no words (at least no family-friendly ones) to describe the insanity that is the ongoing legal war between practically every player in the mobile scene. You can't lay the blame entirely at Cupertino's stoop either -- Motorola, HTC and Samsung all deserve plenty of our ire as well. The tablet and smartphone industry appears to be trying to sue itself out of existence, and Apple's filing today against Motorola Mobility in the US District Court of Southern California is just latest in a long line of legal ploys likely to inspire you to slam your head against a wall. The purveyors of all things "i" has accused Moto of breaching a licensing contract with Qualcomm when Moto hit Apple with four patent claims in Germany. That license covers wireless technology Qualcomm uses in its MDM6610 chip, and also purportedly covers Qualcomm's customers who purchase and use said chips. Naturally, that bit of silicon is a component in the iPhone 4S, so Apple argues that it's safe under the terms of the contract. Furthermore, Cupertino claims Motorola is barred from suing under the doctrine of exhaustion -- which is a legal defense that once a patented item is sold (i.e. when Moto licensed its technology to Qualcomm), the patentee's control over that item is exhausted and it can't sue anyone else for infringement.

So, this new suit filed in San Diego seeks to prevent Motorola from enforcing its claims in Deutschland. It also aims to keep Motorola from suing Apple for its use of Qualcomm components incorporating licensed Moto technology anywhere else. Confused? We won't lie, we are a little bit too, but all is revealed in the complaint found at the source link below.

Apple sues Motorola over Qualcomm license, makes us dream of a world without lawyers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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