Apple has asked EU anti-trust regulators to step in and settle a technology patent dispute between the company and Motorola Mobility, according to the “International Business Times” (http://macte.ch/cKK7D).
The move came after regulators on both sides of the Atlantic said they would intervene to prevent companies from “gouging” rivals when they license patents essential to ensuring different communications devices work together, the article adds.
“On February 17, 2012, the company received a letter from the European Commission notifying it that the Commission has received a complaint against Motorola Mobility, Inc. by Apple, Inc. regarding the enforcement of MMI’s standards-essential patents against Apple allegedly in breach of MMI’s FRAND (fair and reasonable) commitments,” Motorola Mobility said in a regulatory filing on Friday. “Apple’s complaint seeks the Commission’s intervention with respect to standards-essential patents,”
The European Commission, which oversees competition matters across the 27-country European Union, is now investigating whether legal tactics used by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd against Apple breaches EU antitrust rules, notes the “International Business Times.”
This is part of an ongoing battle between Apple and Samsung. Apple has previously alleged that Motorola infringes 24 of its patents (21 of them with Android-based phones, the remaining three with set-top boxes and DVRs), while Motorola previously asserted 18 patents against a variety of Apple products (mostly but not exclusively iPhone, iPad and iPod). Litigation between the two companies has taken place in several different federal courts.
In November 2010 Apple sued Motorola, alleging that the company’s smartphone lineup and the operating software it uses infringe on the iPhone-maker’s intellectual property. The two lawsuits came after Motorola sued Apple in October 2010 for patent infringement. Motorola claims that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents.