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Apple and Google/Motorola Agree to Settle Patent Litigation, Work Together on Patent Reform

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Apple and Google/Motorola Mobility have agreed to a settlement and will dismiss pending patent litigation between the two companies, according to a court filing referenced by Reuters.

As part of the settlement, Apple and Google have agreed to work together "in some areas of patent reform". Apple and Google have been in patent disputes for years. This particular settlement does not include a patent cross-licensing agreement, which is sometimes included in patent settlements.

AppleMotorola

In a joint statement, the companies said the settlement does not include a cross license to their respective patents. "Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform," the statement said.

The dispute between Apple and Motorola began in 2010, with both companies accusing each other of patent infringement. Google inherited the legal issues when it purchased Motorola Mobility in 2011. There are more than a dozen different lawsuits between the two companies in various jurisdictions around the world, and this agreement is said to settle all of them.

Apple still has numerous patent lawsuits in the works against a vast array of companies, most notably Samsung. Earlier this year, Google announced it was selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.

Apple and HTC settled their patent disputes in late 2012, agreeing to a ten-year cross licensing agreement.

Top Rated Comments

N
nutjob
155 months ago
Translation: Your patents are probably as good as my patents so lets not spend endless millions and countless energy litigating ourselves into a stalemate.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lloydbm41 Avatar
Lloydbm41
155 months ago
My guess is that after the Samsung case both sides decided the benefits weren't worth the costs. Tim Cook has no personal stake in it like Steve Jobs and can let his brain guide him.

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Probably a net win for Apple, albeit not a knockout blow. They got Google to overpay for Motorola Mobility. At least Apple v Samsung will pay for the lawyers.

Net win for Apple? Not likely. Not only have they come out looking like bullies in the eyes of many, they are directly responsible for giving Samsung so much free advertising and publicity (for good or bad), that they made the Galaxy series of phones synonymous with Android! And that is not a good thing.

Now here is why I think Apple settled with Google AND this is the only reason: Google's patent for rich notifications and the Notification Center, which has been sitting in the USPTO for over 6 years is probably about to be granted. If Google were inclined, they would be able to sue and show proof positive that Apple willfully and deliberately stole this patent, putting it on every hardware product they make, save for the ATV. This could amount to tens of billions of dollars as well as bans on every single product Apple makes, in particular the iPhone. Apple would prefer to not risk this. This is my guess as to why Apple is doing this.

Lastly, Google didn't overpay for Motorola. You do know they got nearly all that cash back by splitting up the set top box portion and the sale to Lenovo. Not like they spent 3 billion on a headphone company. Wink wink
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I
iLoveiTunes
155 months ago
About time... Lets move on guys .

YaY to the settlement.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jayducharme Avatar
jayducharme
155 months ago
So much for the thermo-nuclear war....
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kdarling Avatar
kdarling
155 months ago
Ok let's see. If we take video playback as representative of general workload: The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a 2800 mAh battery, which is good for 11 hours of video playback.

The iPhone 5S has a 1570 mAh battery that is good for 10 hours of video playback.

So, an iPhone would get 16 hours of video playback with the Galaxy S5 battery. 60% more work from the same power.
You ignored the huge difference in screens. The iPhone has only 1136×640 = 727,040 pixels. The Galaxy has 1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pixels, or almost three times as many. Thus:


* The iPhone uses 1570mAh / 10 hours / 727K = .00022 mAh per pixel.
* The Galaxy uses 2800mAh / 11 hours / 2M = .00012 mAh per pixel.


The Galaxy is nearly twice as efficient in battery usage per pixel.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
G
genovelle
155 months ago
Translation: Your patents are probably as good as my patents so lets not spend endless millions and countless energy litigating ourselves into a stalemate.
More like. Google agreeing to stop using Apple's tech. Which is the only thing I believe Apple would agree to. HTC and Microsoft have licensing agreements with Apple on certain tech, but much of what Google and Samsung appropriated were feature designed to make Apple products unique in the market place. That is why there are no cross licensing deals. Apple knows they are dealing with the equivalent of the old Microsoft. A license deal with them made the theft of the Mac OS possible. Im glad they learned from that mistake.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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