US: Patent battle between iPhone, Motorola Mobility back from the dead

A feud between Apple and Google over standard mobile phone patent royalties could be back from the dead as Apple has reportedly asked an appeals court to revive the case nearly four years after it began.

Legal representatives for Apple approached the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington on Tuesday to request a new look at the case, which accuses Google of charging unfair royalties for its patent licensing in violation of FRAND agreements.

According to reports, Google-owned Motorola charged 2.25 percent of an iPhone sale price – about $12 – for its technology, while Apple refused to pay any more than $1 per iPhone.

A scheduled trial to determine the royalty fees was tossed after Apple made that refusal.

The two companies have been feuding over patents since October 2010, say reports; additional litigation is currently pending in Miami, and a separate patent case was tossed in Chicago after Circuit Judge Richard Posner rejected Apple’s and Microsoft’s damage claims. The Federal Circuit heard arguments regarding the Chicago case last September.

The breadth of patent litigation between the enemy technology giants earned criticism from Circuit Judge Kimberly Moore. “I don’t understand what any of you are doing,” she reportedly told the companies. “Why are you suing each other in 15 different courts? I don’t think even you can keep track of which patent is in which court.”

Full Content: Bloomberg

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