EU rules Google's Motorola abused patents in seeking injunction against Apple
AppleInsider Staff
In a preliminary ruling, the European Commission has determined that Google's Motorola Mobility abused its dominance in mobile patents when it sought an injunction against Apple's iPhone in Germany.
The EU's ruling made on Monday could set the stage for antitrust charges to be filed against Google, according to The New York Times. Motorola had initially sought a legal injunction against Apple's iPhone over a standard-essential patent related to GSM technology.
Motorola had initially committed the patent to be subject to Fair, Reasonable and Non-Descriminatory licensing, or FRAND. That means the company must offer a licensing agreement to competitors asking for it.
Because of that, Apple argued that Motorola's injunction efforts were illegally leveraging patents the company was obligated to license. The heated matter even prompted mobile rival Microsoft to join the fray with Apple against Motorola.
On Monday, the European Union's executive body declared Motorola's injunction was "an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by E.U. antitrust rules." Google officially acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion a year ago.
"I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice," Joaquin Almunia, the E.U. competition commissioner, said in a statement on the matter on Monday.
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79 Comments
I'm not terribly surprised. Mr Almunia has been flexing his muscles the past few months against all the big techs from Apple to Microsoft and Samsung to Google. Like with Motorola's mobile products there's going to be some "flushing" and re-direction that needs to be done. At least Google hasn't started anything new since taking over and the old Moto-filed lawsuits are slowly being dealt with. That's a relief. What I do hope happens is that lines are drawn on how the EU views SEP's in general, and how all the holders will be expected to proceed in the future. Just recently we've seen more injunction demands being made by Ericsson over SEP's and they're far from the only ones. Nokia's gone there before and may do so again as their money problems get worse.
"I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice," Joaquin Almunia, the E.U. competition commissioner, said in a statement on the matter on Monday.
Page laments the tendency among technology companies to sue each other over intellectual property. “The general trend of the industry towards being a lot more litigious somehow has been a sad thing,” he says. “There is a lot of money going to lawyers and things, instead of building great products.”
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-04/the-education-of-googles-larry-page#p3
It is pleasing to see two people of like minds!
"I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice," Joaquin Almunia, the E.U. competition commissioner, said in a statement on the matter on Monday.
Page laments the tendency among technology companies to sue each other over intellectual property. “The general trend of the industry towards being a lot more litigious somehow has been a sad thing,” he says. “There is a lot of money going to lawyers and things, instead of building great products.”
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-04/the-education-of-googles-larry-page#p3
It is pleasing to see two people of like minds!
It is indeed, the irony.
And remember - Do NOt Be Evil.
Nonetheless, It is humans that run companies.
[quote name="festerfeet" url="/t/157367/eu-rules-googles-motorola-abused-patents-in-seeking-injunction-against-apple#post_2322239"]"[B]I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice,[/B]" Joaquin Almunia, the E.U. competition commissioner, said in a statement on the matter on Monday. Page laments the tendency among technology companies to sue each other over intellectual property. “[B]The general trend of the industry towards being a lot more litigious somehow has been a sad thing,” he says. “There is a lot of money going to lawyers and things, instead of building great products.[/B]” [URL=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-04/the-education-of-googles-larry-page#p3]http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-04/the-education-of-googles-larry-page#p3 [/URL] It is pleasing to see two people of like minds! [/quote] It would be even nicer to see two actions of like minds -- i.e., for Google to agree with the EU and stop this nonsense once and for all.
Just thought that I would point out that Joaquin Almunia is actually a Vice-President of the European Commission...one of eight yes, but a VP nonetheless.