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Apple and Google/Motorola Agree to Settle Patent Litigation, Work Together on Patent Reform

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple and Google/Motorola Mobility have agreed to a settlement and will dismiss pending patent litigation between the two companies, according to a court filing referenced by Reuters.

As part of the settlement, Apple and Google have agreed to work together "in some areas of patent reform". Apple and Google have been in patent disputes for years. This particular settlement does not include a patent cross-licensing agreement, which is sometimes included in patent settlements.

applemotorola.png
In a joint statement, the companies said the settlement does not include a cross license to their respective patents. "Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform," the statement said.
Click to expand...
The dispute between Apple and Motorola began in 2010, with both companies accusing each other of patent infringement. Google inherited the legal issues when it purchased Motorola Mobility in 2011. There are more than a dozen different lawsuits between the two companies in various jurisdictions around the world, and this agreement is said to settle all of them.

Apple still has numerous patent lawsuits in the works against a vast array of companies, most notably Samsung. Earlier this year, Google announced it was selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.

Apple and HTC settled their patent disputes in late 2012, agreeing to a ten-year cross licensing agreement.

Article Link: Apple and Google/Motorola Agree to Settle Patent Litigation, Work Together on Patent Reform
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/16/apple-google-settlement/
N

nutjob

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2010
1,030
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Translation: Your patents are probably as good as my patents so lets not spend endless millions and countless energy litigating ourselves into a stalemate.
 
A

apolloa

Suspended
Oct 21, 2008
12,318
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Time, because it rules EVERYTHING!
What is the Motorola Mobility? Is that just the fancy name for the mobile phone division of Motorola?

Anyway, glad to see SOME common sense prevail, although I do wonder how much the courts had to do with this and even possibly governments?
 
sfwalter

sfwalter

macrumors 68020
Jan 6, 2004
2,243
2,065
Dallas Texas
Could this be a sign that the great patent smart phone war is drawing to a close. Hopefully no new patent litigation is filed against Samsung.

Perhaps the great lifestyle gear patent war is just going be the next war.
 
bpeeps

bpeeps

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May 6, 2011
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sfwalter said:
Could this be a sign that the great patent smart phone war is drawing to a close. Hopefully no new patent litigation is filed against Samsung.

Perhaps the great lifestyle gear patent war is just going be the next war.
Click to expand...

Lawsuits behind huge companies happen all the time. You're just not subscribed to XeroxRumors to read them.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,023
7,867
jayducharme said:
So much for the thermo-nuclear war....
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My guess is that after the Samsung case both sides decided the benefits weren't worth the costs. Tim Cook has no personal stake in it like Steve Jobs and can let his brain guide him.

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jayducharme said:
So much for the thermo-nuclear war....
Click to expand...

Probably a net win for Apple, albeit not a knockout blow. They got Google to overpay for Motorola Mobility. At least Apple v Samsung will pay for the lawyers.
 
Piggie

Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
9,116
4,013
What I want to know is this.

Regarding US Law.

Is it illegal to constantly go after just one company ?

Say I made something, and 5 companies copied me (in some ways I felt)

It it legal in the US for me to keep taking just one of these companies to court, or must I be seen to apply my case or being copied to all of them?

It feels wrong that a company can continuosly go after just one company again and again whilst ignoring many others doing similar things
 
japanime

japanime

macrumors 68030
Feb 27, 2006
2,916
4,844
Japan
They agree to work together on patent reform ... until the next time one of them decids to sue the other.

I'm not holding my breath.
 
G

genovelle

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,100
2,677
nutjob said:
Translation: Your patents are probably as good as my patents so lets not spend endless millions and countless energy litigating ourselves into a stalemate.
Click to expand...
More like. Google agreeing to stop using Apple's tech. Which is the only thing I believe Apple would agree to. HTC and Microsoft have licensing agreements with Apple on certain tech, but much of what Google and Samsung appropriated were feature designed to make Apple products unique in the market place. That is why there are no cross licensing deals. Apple knows they are dealing with the equivalent of the old Microsoft. A license deal with them made the theft of the Mac OS possible. Im glad they learned from that mistake.
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
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KPOM said:
My guess is that after the Samsung case both sides decided the benefits weren't worth the costs. Tim Cook has no personal stake in it like Steve Jobs and can let his brain guide him.

----------



Probably a net win for Apple, albeit not a knockout blow. They got Google to overpay for Motorola Mobility. At least Apple v Samsung will pay for the lawyers.
Click to expand...

Net win for Apple? Not likely. Not only have they come out looking like bullies in the eyes of many, they are directly responsible for giving Samsung so much free advertising and publicity (for good or bad), that they made the Galaxy series of phones synonymous with Android! And that is not a good thing.

Now here is why I think Apple settled with Google AND this is the only reason: Google's patent for rich notifications and the Notification Center, which has been sitting in the USPTO for over 6 years is probably about to be granted. If Google were inclined, they would be able to sue and show proof positive that Apple willfully and deliberately stole this patent, putting it on every hardware product they make, save for the ATV. This could amount to tens of billions of dollars as well as bans on every single product Apple makes, in particular the iPhone. Apple would prefer to not risk this. This is my guess as to why Apple is doing this.

Lastly, Google didn't overpay for Motorola. You do know they got nearly all that cash back by splitting up the set top box portion and the sale to Lenovo. Not like they spent 3 billion on a headphone company. Wink wink
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
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genovelle said:
More like. Google agreeing to stop using Apple's tech. Which is the only thing I believe Apple would agree to. HTC and Microsoft have licensing agreements with Apple on certain tech, but much of what Google and Samsung appropriated were feature designed to make Apple products unique in the market place. That is why there are no cross licensing deals. Apple knows they are dealing with the equivalent of the old Microsoft. A license deal with them made the theft of the Mac OS possible. Im glad they learned from that mistake.
Click to expand...

What tech has Google copied from Apple? Because tech usually equates to hardware. Software wise, if that is what you are referring to, i can name dozens of features Apple has copied directly from Google, Blackberry and Windows phone.
 
Menel

Menel

Suspended
Aug 4, 2011
6,351
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apolloa said:
What is the Motorola Mobility? Is that just the fancy name for the mobile phone division of Motorola?

Anyway, glad to see SOME common sense prevail, although I do wonder how much the courts had to do with this and even possibly governments?
Click to expand...
Hardly fancy. And its not a division.

Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions are entirely separate entities.

Moto Solutions does lots of business products.

Moto Mobility does consumer mobile phones and has been bought by Google, and currently being transferred to Chinese ownership.
 
Swift

Swift

macrumors 68000
Feb 18, 2003
1,827
964
Los Angeles
Well, there's that, then

I think the patent war was proper. It never did knick Google, much, but the hardware partners to Google got a warning, and Samsung at least paid back the development costs that it never had to do, because they copied.

But the second suit against Samsung showed that the point of diminishing returns had arrived. And Google would be the logical next target. It's too much of a distraction. Move on. Make peace. Until the next fight.
 
8

827538

Cancelled
Jul 3, 2013
2,322
2,833
Patent reform is desperately needed in both the US and EU. From massive multinationals suing one another as a 'business strategy' to parasitic patent trolls scamming companies out of millions.

I know companies need to protect their property otherwise why make the big initial investments only to have someone else steal it, but this is a joke. You can patent anything and everything which is not how it should be.

I'm of the mindset that patents shouldn't really exist, especially software patents. I believe you should hold a strong copyright over a product - not a patent.

How can we compete going forward when a few big companies just sweep up all the innovation for themselves? How can small companies ever try and compete and pay for royalties on tech that is necessary to future innovation? If I go on to invent something, say a new power source for cars or a new battery technology, I bet that there would be a dozen patents I would have to use in order to innovate. We all build on the work of our predecessors, I don't see it as stealing, I see it as a shared human knowledge. Patents, in their current form, are not fit for the 21st century.
 
Crosscreek

Crosscreek

macrumors 68030
Nov 19, 2013
2,892
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Margarittaville
I get really tired of hearing about constant lawsuits. Not a MacRumor just more blah, blah, blah.
How about those new products Cook was talking about that were going to be released all year?
Thats what I want to hear about.
Probably too busy suing everybody or afraid of getting sued.
 
N

nutjob

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2010
1,030
508
genovelle said:
More like. Google agreeing to stop using Apple's tech. Which is the only thing I believe Apple would agree to. HTC and Microsoft have licensing agreements with Apple on certain tech, but much of what Google and Samsung appropriated were feature designed to make Apple products unique in the market place. That is why there are no cross licensing deals. Apple knows they are dealing with the equivalent of the old Microsoft. A license deal with them made the theft of the Mac OS possible. Im glad they learned from that mistake.
Click to expand...

Yeah you're reading in that from your own imagination since Google has not agreed to do anything of of the sort and there's no evidence that Google is using any of Apples "tech."
 
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