The interesting thing is not that Motorola asserts more patents against Apple, but the timing and the nature of the demand.
The request for a ban on all iPhones, iPads and Macs is made at the ITC for violations on location reminders, e-mail notifications and phone/video players and includes SIRI technology. No details about the patents are available at the moment.
The timing is important as the Samsung – Apple case is drawing to an end. Judge Koh has requested that the CEO´s of both companies have a t least one discussion before the jury will be ready for a verdict. The explicit threat she aired was ´both parties could well lose substantially´ if it were to come to a jury verdict.
With another attack on Apple Google puts on the heat. Samsung and Google work closely together on the legal front and this move by puppet Motorola will strengthen Samsung´s position.
Even if Samsung were to lose partially Apple won´t have a field day with the press when stories about a breach of Motorola patents are all over the news. Meanwhile the current jurors will probably read about this just before they convene…..
The other interesting thing is that Motorola is one of the few remaining US smart phone manufacturers, although they import the phones as well. By going to the International Trade Commission (established for the very purpose of keeping foreigners out of the American market) the point that Apple is not a US manufacturer is driven home.
Google is playing its cards very precise here; the investment in Motorola has always been doubted by analysts, but the patent portfolio shows its value here in a broader war.
The friendly worded, but ominous statement by Motorola is: We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple’s unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers’ innovations.
The timing could also spoil the iPhone 5 announcement: ITC bans can strike fast and could well be in place before the roll-out #patents #patentsMax
Took them long enough!!
I don't particularly like the abuse of patents and intellectual property but I am pleased to see a company stand up to Apple, putting them in a compromising position. I love my Samsung Galaxy Nexus just as my wife loves her iPhone4s so I'm not a fan boy one way or the other. I just appreciate seeing the tables turned the way they have with Apple now on the defensive side and having to feel the heat.
Play with fire enough, you eventually get burned. Apple set the table, I hope they enjoy it.
I don't like the fighting of stupid fire with stupid fire but I don't deny I'd feel a little schadenfreude if Apple go a taste of their own medicine.
That´s the management summary +Walter H Groth
I knew Motorola was sitting on more patents than just 3G. But they were holding back pending the acquisition.
This whole patent fighting reminds me of how US politicians work today…seems they forgot that working together ultimately helps everyone.
Sure +Siamak Manzarpour at the time of the acquisition I have commented on it as well. It´s often overlooked, but the ITC´s main task is to keep these nasty foreigners which violate trade and safety regulations and even worse US patent from the American market.
The irony of that same ITC being used against Apple is very amusing.
First time it happened was when HTC filed a complained against Apple. My post a year ago went unnoticed as most people missed the fun part in all these legalities.
Motorola was acquired specifically for these patents. The cell arm was going onto the market one way or another and Google knew that someone was going to buy them, and that that could spell trouble for Android.
Note that Motorola does it's own thing, and the 'Droid group roll out new "official" phones through other manufacturers – Samsung – and not through the phone manufacturer that they own.
+Wes Lum considering how broken the patent system is not only in the US but in most 'civilized countries', especially yes. Everyone would be better off talking to each other and working out various swaps and deals.
What saddens me is that there's less and less of a chance of anyone new being able to enter the market and competing. It's impossible to build a cell phone without stepping on several patents, and a new contender doesn't have the capital to fight that.
Maybe HP will come back and shake things up.
+Olav Folland although I mostly agree, do remember that on every patent case which reaches the courts there are magnitudes more cross-licensing deals.
As a newcomer you can enter the market except if you enter Apple territory as they are the only one refusing cross-licenses
That´s why I added the italic part in the post about the ominous statement by
MotorolaGoogle.+Olav Folland I always wondered how HTC broke through…they are relatively new and is doing pretty well. But I see what you mean, it's not "easy" to create a new phone now…
Good point +Max Huijgen and nothing new. Remember when, if you wanted three buttons on a mouse for your Mac you had to buy from Kensington? And you had to make damn sure that your printer was acceptable to your Mac? Heck, more recently, with the first Wi-Fi setups, you couldn't connect a PC to a Mac Air router, and would sometimes have trouble connecting your MacBook to a non-Air router too.
(disclaimer – no, I'm not a Mac fan. I'm not a hater, but I don't like their closed-architecture attitudes, amongst other things)
+Wes Lum didn't HTC used to be a company like Lenovo – they manufactured other people's products for years before they made the leap? I'm not super-savvy on phones, but I think they used to make Palm's stuff at one time.
But somehow they acquired the capital to enter the market, and the willingness to do unspeakable things to the management at the carriers that it takes to get front-page promotion. I think good timing was involved too.
Don´t confuse HTC with some latecomer to the party like Apple. They made their first smart phones in 2002 and the company is much older than that.
They own a considerable amount of patents themselves +Olav Folland
I never used a mouse with 3 buttons (although I had seen them).
+Max Huijgen ah, they were doing Windows phones back then. I'd forgotten because I was a Handspring Fan Boi back in those days (okay, still am).
everyone has been waiting for when Google would drop their gauntlet on the table. Google, being as solid as they are, waited until the perfect moment to strike. Looks like it has come 🙂
Added one sentence to the post:
Meanwhile the current jurors will probably read about this just before they convene…..
This one is different in that a judge had ready ruled Apple had infringed but the parties hadn't come to a licensing agreement yet.
Most Motorola Mobility products are manufactured outside the US as well: notably smartphones in Tianjin, China.
From SEC filing: "Motorola Mobility owns three major facilities for the manufacturing and distribution of its products. These facilities are located in: Tianjin, China; Hsin Tien, Taiwan; and Jaguariuna, Brazil.
A substantial portion of Motorola Mobility’s products are manufactured in China, Taiwan, and Brazil, either in our own facilities or in the facilities of third-parties who manufacture and assemble products for us. If manufacturing in the region or by the small number of third-party suppliers and manufacturers who make a significant portion of our products were disrupted, Motorola Mobility’s overall production capacity could be significantly reduced."
Indeed, a few Android products are currently banned for import to the US based on recent injunctions.
You´re right +Brian Cerveny I checked and indeed the ITC can ban Motorola as well, meaning they are also officially made outside of the US.
While writing the post I thought they still assembled in the US.
+David Young is that sarcasm? My GS2 is very high quality as was my GS.
+David Young ah, yes, Siri, the new Google Voice Search's ugly girlfriend. Well, when you're not very good, you have to make up for it with personality I suppose.
It's funny to hear iFans now promoting Siri the way you encourage your guy friend to hook up with a homely girl. "Well, she's not much to look at, but she's got a great personality and a wicked sense of humor."
Yeah, I've used voice on my Android for some time, and there are quite a few to choose from. There's nothing an iOS device offers that Android doesn't have. You can even get retro looking UIs so it feels like iOS 😉
+David Young how did you jump to TVs when 1) Apple doesn't make any and 2) the discussion was about smartphones?
I've had 4 Samsung smartphones in my house with 0 problems. No Samsung owner I know has had a problem with theirs either.
You sound more like a shill than someone who wants to participate in a discussion.
No offense but it was an analogy, and nobody cares about anyone else's spouse's statistics.
I'll do you one better…
+David Young sorry you don't grasp analogy. And no one cares how hot you think your wife is. Your need to boast about that when no one was talking about her is suggestive of something… not sure what, but a psychoanalyst would surely have a field day.
I blocked him. Fanboy, braggart, and unrealistic.
Thanks, +Max Huijgen – the most eloquent post on this so far IMHO.
Thank you for the compliment +Mike McLoughlin I try to do more than share the latest Mashable ´articles´ so happy that it´s appreciated.
I don´t even see comments by David Young. Have they been deleted +Jeffrey Hamby +Eli Fennell?
+Max Huijgen Yup. I guess he had a crisis of conscience about bragging about his wife's vital statistics on a social network.
Yeah, I'll never know as I blocked him. Life is too short to deal with unrealistic people.
I participate in +Max Huijgen threads because of the diversity of people and their willingness to participate in actual discussions. I've learned from opposing points of view and I hope I've shed some light on viewpoints others don't share.
I certainly side with Googorola on this one, but it doesn't do a thing for fixing the patent system.
Unless some of us posting on this thread are billionaires none of us will ever really fully profit from a great idea. Apple, Google, or some other large lawyer packed corporation will just offer us a few thousand dollars for our 'billion dollar ideas" and if we don't accept that offer they will just steal it and dare us to come up with the hundreds of millions it will cost to fight them in the courts.
P.S. for the purposes of complete transparency I must declare I am not a billionaire. 😉
I could use that as an advertisement +Jeffrey Hamby 🙂
That is a great attitude to have, +Jeffrey Hamby !!
+Jeffrey Hamby I recall having a debate with you on one of Max's posts in opposing stances regarding global warming that was healthy, respectful and ended with agreement in specific grey areas while acknowledging we still had differences respectfully. Makes you wonder why corporations and governments can't do the same.
I'm not a fan of all these patent lawsuits, but I do find it rather satisfying to see Google and Motorola turn up in the nick of time, much like Han Solo during the famed trench run in Star Wars.
Hopefully this will put some pressure on Apple to be more open to a settlement in the Samsung lawsuit.
+John Maguire I remember that one. It stayed civil and informative.
Although I strongly believe that this whole mess is nothing more than a direct projection of a severely flawed patent and intellectual property system, I have to admit that this kinda brings out a smile on me 😉
Has it really got that much more difficult to make a new smartphone nowadays? If you use Linux you'll end up having to license patents from Microsoft but that was always the case. Some would say that if you're successful apple may try to have you banned, which is new, I suppose.
+Edouard Tavinor using Linux won´t save you from patents. It´s not the core OS which is at heart of the patent battles but implementations of concepts as well as the use of standards.
+Max Huijgen didn't Microsoft say that Linux (the kernel) infringed on 200-odd unnamed patents a couple of years ago?
Yes, but that´s turning the argument upside down +Edouard Tavinor
+Max Huijgen I'd estimate it's a problem for successful smartphone companies. At some point Microsoft will demand its tithe. How much that actually is has, as far as I know, never been disclosed, and probably differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. Didn't Barnes and Noble get Microsoft to disclose some of the shakedown patents recently?
+Robert Johnson There's no need for them to release more than one device a year. Samsung only release one flaghsip phone a year in the form of their S series devices, and HTC have recently taken this stance with their One series. All the other handsets these companies release are entirely forgettable and are just there to provide options for people on a budget.
The older iterations of the iPhone stick around to give people cheaper variations, and the Apple brand is so strong that they can get away with this as people consistently want these devices.
+Jordan Marsden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy
Samsung has several releases a year on the Galaxy line. The S3 came out only 6 months after the Nexus.
And don´t forget the quite successful Galaxy Note +Jordan Marsden
+Jeffrey Hamby I'm aware of iterations like the Galaxy Y and the Galaxy Ace in the budget range, I just meant the flagship S variants (i.e. the Galaxy S, Galaxy S2 and the S3) are limited to one a year. Also, the Galaxy Nexus is more like a handset that Google outsources for its Nexus brand and, as a result, I would consider this more of a Google phone than a flagship Samsung device… But each to their own I guess.
With the 3GS and the iPhone 4 still knocking about, I don't think it's necessary for Apple to create a separate line of budget devices, and I don't think they would ever adopt this approach.
+Max Huijgen That's a fair comment, but I do see the Note as more of an experiment and separate from the traditional mobile phone market, due to its 'Phablet' size and fairly niche appeal.
+Jordan Marsden then you didn't read my whole comment. The S3 (flagship) released 6 months after the Nexus (flagship).
+Jeffrey Hamby I read it but, like I said, I would consider it more of a Google handset than one of Samsung's flagship devices, especially considering the Nexus doesn't run Touchwiz.
Replace Nexus with GS2 then (same phone with different launchers). Same date range.
+Jeffrey Hamby The S2 was released in the UK on the 1st of May 2011, and the S3 was released on the 29th of May 2012.
I didin't take into account that the release dates were different overseas and in the US, but at least over here in the UK (and most of Europe), there was a significant 12 month gap between releases.
+Jordan Marsden nor did I. I actually didn't pay attention at all to the UK release date.
BTW, missing from that list is the Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, which released a couple of months after the initial S2 release on AT&T with upgraded hardware.
Niche appeal of the Note +Jordan Marsden with more than 10 million sold and a new revision on the brink of introduction? It was an unexpected success, but it became a solid second flagship device.
+Max Huijgen admittedly I kind of laughed at the Note when it was announced. Then my wife, who doesn't want a tablet, expressed interest and I understood at that point. A purse or backpack device for the tweeners.
What´s the link with the post by the way? I don´t mind if we go astray, but maybe someone can help me remind why this is important for the Google strike on Apple?
The real relevance is that Apple at least has just one model a year and that its introduction could well be spoiled by this request for a ban.
That's pretty much it. Samsung makes several devices a year (flagship or otherwise) as does HTC and the rest.
Apple makes only one (call it a flagship or singleton, I don't care). An interruption in their supply stream would be much more disastrous than it would be for the other manufacturers.
And Motorola gets a pass on ITC since they're not technically imported.