Judge Richard Posner on Thursday decided to grant Apple an injunction hearing against Motorola, reversing his tentative ruling to reject the case last week.
After ruling one week ago that Apple failed to prove injury in its case against Motorola, Seventh Circuit Judge sitting by designation on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Richard Posner has decided to grant the company's request to a hearing that could see the sales ban of certain Motorola products, reports FOSS Patents.
The decision is not a complete reversal of Judge Posner's original rejection order, however, as the distinguished jurist qualified his statements last week Thursday by saying he would deliberate on whether to move forward with Apple's motion for injunctive relief. A follow-up final statement on the issue was scheduled to be released that same day though no such document was published.
Judge Posner's decision to grant Apple a hearing is a double-edged sword for the iPhone maker as Motorola Mobility is also allowed to argue for injunctive relief. That road may be a rocky one for the now Google-owned company because it has entangled itself with a number of FRAND-based lawsuits and will have to address those assertions as they pertain to any future proceedings in Judge Posner's court.
"…if Motorola means to argue for injunctive relief it should be prepared to address the bearing of FRAND on the injunction analysis," Judge Posner wrote in Thursday's order.
In previous statements regarding the hearing, Judge Posner was critical of arguments made by both sides, calling some "frivolous" and "vague." Apple's legal tactics were directly called into question at one point when a motion to reconsider was called "troubling."
Both parties are slated to submit their respective briefs by Monday, June 18 for an in-court hearing scheduled for June 20.