Motorola to fight Apple patent on validity, not violation
updated 01:35 pm EDT, Thu April 26, 2012
Motorola may concede on key Apple patent dispute
Motorola in a Munich court on Thursday made a partial concession in Apple's lawsuit over touch technology. The RAZR designer's attorney didn't directly contest a view by the presiding judge that Motorola was likely violating a patent for iOS' bounce effect during scrolling. Instead, Motorola hoped to challenge the validity of the patent itself.
The dispute may work in Apple's favor. Although Apple won't have direct recourse to a US court's precedent as binding in Germany, it may still point to court statements in October that Samsung was likely infringing on the patent, supporting that it was valid. Courts in Germany and the US are more likely to deny an initial ban than find a company innocent of a violation, since a preliminary ban is based on perceived urgency rather than absolute legitimacy.
Motorola will see a more definitive hearing for its defense on July 19. If it faces a permanent ban, it may only have to revert to the stock Android interface element, which doesn't move but glows to indicate it's at the end of the list. [via Florian Mueller]
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
Good.
I think every patent trial should begin with a hearing composed of industry professionals to decide if the patent is indeed valid. The patent office certainly doesn't do their due diligence when granting some of these software patents.