End to Apple, Google, Motorola patent dispute: Will it usher in a new age of tech? - Daily Digest
Apple and Google, after years of legal wrangling over intellectual property, have agreed to dismiss all current patent disputes. The move to end the litigation started in 2010 with both parties bearing their own court and attorney costs. The specifics are detailed in a filing entered with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday. The motion states, in part:
"Plaintiffs-Appellants Apple Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc., together with Defendants-Cross Appellants Motorola, Inc. and Motorola Mobility, Inc., respectfully move the Court to issue the mandate in these consolidated appeals, so that the parties can proceed to the district court to dismiss the litigation without prejudice. The parties further agree that each party will bear its own costs and attorneys' fees. The two tech companies have signed an agreement to settle all outstanding patent litigation between them, specifically in the smartphone patent wars between the companies."
The Apple-Google patent agreement comes two weeks after a jury in California awarded Apple damages against Samsung, in a case widely viewed as a proxy against Google's Android operating system. Apple had been seeking more than $2 billion in damages, but received $119.6 million. Apple had already won one major patent infringement case against Samsung, resulting in $930 million worth of damages. Samsung, which is evidently not a party to the new agreement between Google and Apple, is appealing that verdict.
Apple and Google, as a result of the dismissal of the patent litigation, have outlined a plan to work together on patent reform, a legal area that has been contentious for both companies and has distracted their focus away from technological innovation. The companies, with the settling of the patent lawsuits and agreement to cooperate on patent reform, can now focus against each other with technical competition and not expensive legal wrangling.
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