Apple Files New Patent Complaint Against Motorola Mobility

The European Commission has recently received a demand from Apple, which asked them to intervene in its ongoing patent battle with Motorola Mobility; this news came after Motorola Mobility made a filing with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday.In this annual report, Motorola Mobility declared that Apple has filed a complaint with the European Commission (The Union’s executive and regulatory body), in relation to Motorola Mobility’s attempts to enforce patents related to various other industry standards. In dispute are the so-called “essential patents” held by some private companies but on which it has been agreed upon that they can be used in industry standards and licensed under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

The annual report contains the following references to the subject: “On February 17, 2012, the Company received a letter from the European Commission, Competition Directorate-General, (the ‘Commission’) notifying it that the Commission has received a complaint against Motorola Mobility, Inc. (‘MMI’) by Apple, Inc. (‘Apple’) regarding the enforcement of MMI’s standards-essential patents against Apple allegedly in breach of MMI’s FRAND commitments”. It then goes on saying that: “Apple’s complaint seeks the Commission’s intervention with respect to standards-essential patents.”

Although officials of the two companies were not available immediately after for answering questions in this case, this turn of events definitely turns the heat up on a long, ongoing dispute between the two companies that has been brewing for a while, and which has gained some significance ever since Google recently won E.U. and U.S. approval so as to acquire Motorola Mobility for its patents portfolio.

According to Florian Mueller, a patent analyst, the European Commission is most likely going to intervene, seeing as the numbers of patent dispute cases proliferate. In his blog posts, Mueller says: “I am sure that Brussels will take the time it needs to understand the issue, but time is of the essence because of what’s already going on, so I think a decision on whether or not MMI will be formally investigated is only a few months away” (here). He then continues: “I think formal investigations are reasonably likely here.”