Friday, April 12, 2013

Blog 21: Florida Ruling Sets Back Google

Google suffered two additional setbacks in its attempt to create value from its Motorola patent portfolio. A German court notified Google that it plans to lift the only existing Google injunction against Apple in existence--a ban on iCloud push notifications. (Push notifications send information directly to a user's phone.)

Additionally, Judge Robert Scola from the Southern District of Florida pushed back the claim construction process for a new case by four months. Google and Motorola previously started the litigation in Florida over six patents, which led Apple also counter sue on basis of their own patents. This case became significant because while Google's acquisition of Motorola was under antitrust review, Motorola filed an additional suit against Apple targeting Apple's (as of then) new iPhone 4S and iCloud platform.

The delay is particularly bad for Google because it hinders Google's ability to extract value from it's $12.5Bn acquisition of Motorola. Furthermore, Google is unable to stop Apple from continuing to assert patents against Android. Additionally, because Apple cannot afford to lose any lawsuit against an Android OEM or any company affiliated with Android (because the precedent will strengthen the Android OS as a whole),  the delay is a welcome news update. 

As this case is still in the early stages, there are over 180 claims jammed into this singular lawsuit--Judge Scola noted that currently the case is far too big to effectively manage. If Scolar orders that the lawsuit be slimmed down, Apple will likely benefit because it would  have to fight off fewer patents.



http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/florida-judge-slows-down-multi-patent.html
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2 comments:

  1. Adam RembaApril 13, 2013 at 5:23 PM

    Clearly Google thought it would be a good idea to purchase Motorola, and it may be in the future, but as of now it is not turning out so well for them. Also, I think it is a good idea what Judge Scola wants to do slimming the case down or else it would just be wasting time and money going through each of the 180 patents.

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  2. maamaablacksheepApril 14, 2013 at 11:37 PM

    I agree with Adam, and I would like to bring out the point of having 180 patent suits. I wonder what Google was thinking about cramming 180 lawsuits on queue against Apple. Does it serve a purpose other than to overly complicate the lawsuit? It seems like the purpose is to divest Apple's resources into each patent individually and have a multi-front patent war. The slimming down of the 180 patents allows Apple to have a smaller front to defend #waranalogies

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