Apple Loss in Motorola Mobility Patent Case Upheld by Agency (1)
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.'s loss in a case where it accused phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. of patent infringement will stand, a U.S. trade agency said today.
The U.S. International Trade Commission said it rejected Apple's claims that Judge Theodore Essex erred in finding that Motorola Mobility wasn't infringing one Apple patent and that two other patents were invalid.
The case is part of a broader battle that Cupertino, California-based Apple is waging across four continents against makers of phones that run on Google Inc.'s Android software, which the company claims copies features of the iPhone and iPad. Google is buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.
The ITC complaint targeted Libertyville, Illinois-based Motorola Mobility's Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, BackFlip, Devour and Charm phones, as well as the Xoom tablet.
The commission said it examined the record and determined to review part of the judge's decision, though that would follow with a "finding of no violation." The full decision will be issued later, the commission said in today's statement.
Representatives for Apple and Motorola Mobility didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
Android was the platform on almost 49 percent of the smartphone subscribers as of January, while Apple's iOS was on almost 30 percent, according to market researcher ComScore Inc. Among manufacturers, Apple had 12.8 percent share of the market and Motorola Mobility had 13.2 percent, the researcher said March 6.
Tablet Devices
According to market research firm Gartner Inc., 103.5 million tablet devices will be sold in 2012, with Apple accounting for two-thirds of those.
The patent that Essex said was not infringed was issued in October 2010 and covers devices that can react to different types of manual input, such as tapping, sliding or pinching.
One of the patents found to be invalid, issued in February 2010, is for a touch panel that can recognize multiple touches by the fingers of a user. The other patent, which was issued in 1995, is for a way to add components without having to run an installation program or rebooting.
Motorola Mobility has its own complaint against Apple pending at the trade agency. ITC Judge Thomas Pender is scheduled to release his findings in that case on April 23.
The companies also have filed civil suits against each other on other patents, with one trial scheduled to begin in April in federal court in Chicago.
The Apple case is In the Matter of Mobile Devices and Related Software, 337-750, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).
To contact the reporters on this story: William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net; Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net
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