There's hardly a phone maker not keeping the ITC busy. Staff have ruled in favor of Nokia over Apple, and it has agreed to hear Motorola's complaints against Apple.
Mobile phone makers and their finger-pointing over potential patent
infringements are keeping the U.S. International Trade Commission busy.
On Nov. 3, some good news came for Nokia, following the kick off of
an ITC trial looking into complaints Apple made against the global
handset leader, accusing it of infringing on a number of patents. In a
prehearing statement, staff at the ITC said they found some of the
patent accusations to be invalid, and that others weren't infringed
upon, according to several media reports.
The staff added that if Judge Charles Bullock does find Nokia to be
in violation of the patents, "he should ban some of Nokia's phones from
being imported into the U.S.," the
Wall Street Journal
reported. Bloomberg added that Bullock is scheduled to release his
findings in February, and that his ruling is subject to review by a
six-member commission, expected to complete the investigation in June.
The legal back-and-forth between Apple and Nokia began in October
2009, when Nokia filed a complaint against Apple in U.S. District
Court, accusing it of infringing on 10 patents for connectivity
standards. Apple counter-sued, and each also took its case to the ITC.
In September, Apple made the next move,
filing a complaint with a court in Britain.
On Nov. 3, the ITC also ruled that it would investigate a complaint
filed by Motorola against Apple,
likewise accusing it of infringing on patents relevant to "electronic
devices such as cell phones, portable music players, and computers" and
calling on the ITC to ban the import of "video games and controllers
that infringe" on the patents. (In similar-ish news, the ITC also
agreed to investigate Nintendo, following a complaint by Motiva, which
says patents for its controllers and video games have been infringed
upon.)
Apple also has a counter-suit out against Motorola, which it filed
against in a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin, alleging the technology
in Android-running Motorola phones, such as the Droid, Droid X and
Droid 2, infringes on six Apple patents dealing with the way users
interact with handsets.
And finally, on Nov. 2, the ITC also ruled that it would investigate
a complaint that Microsoft filed against, you guessed it, Motorola,
accusing it, on Oct. 1, of infringing on patents related to "certain
mobile devices, associated software and components thereof."
With smartphone adoption on the rise - the global handset market,
largely dictated by smartphone sales, grew 14.6 percent during the
third quarter,
according to IDC,
reaching shipments of 340.5 million units - the stakes are climbing,
and there's hardly a handmaker without a complaint, or that hasn't been
at the business end of one. In March, Apple also filed suits against
HTC, the maker of a number iPhone-battling Android handsets, in both a
U.S. District Court and with the ITC.
"We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create
their own original technology, not steal ours," Apple CEO Steve Jobs
said in a statement at the time.
So far, the ITC has yet to officially rule on who's stealing what.
The trial of Nokia's suit against Apple, Bloomberg reported, is scheduled to begin Nov. 29.
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