Today Apple added a little twist to their battle against Motorola. According to the headlines, Apple wants the courts to hold off judgment in this case untill Google is done buying Motorola. They claim whenever this merger is over, Motorola will have no right to the lawsuits they are currently fighting Apple over.
Now some of you might not be aware of this, but Google gets control of Motorola's patents and that is essentially what Apple is banking on at this point.
Here is a quote from the original article:
Apple argues that prior to completion of the merger, it would be a prejudiced in any of the following two events:
- If any of MMI's infringement claims succeeded:
"Apple should not have to face the threat of an injunction based on the claims of a party that now has no standing to bring those claims."
Its lawyers also argue that "Apple will be expending enormous resources litigating claims against a party that does not have standing".- If Apple fended off MMI's infringement claims:
"Apple should not be required to litigate this case only to reach a result that may well be overturned on appeal due to the absence of prudential standing."
The term "prudential standing" means that a party has to meet, beyond the constitutional requirements for standing, certain additional criteria that the courts have established.
Apple's second concern may also relate to a scenario in which it wins on one or more counts (and it's very unlikely that all 21 Apple patents-in-suit in those two cases would fail), in which case such a win will be of no value if the ruling can later be thrown out: "[W]ere Apple to prevail in this case, it risks an attack on its victory on appeal by a third party, whether Google or another Android smartphone manufacturer, contending that the judgment should be overturned due to a lack of prudential standing."
The court dates are set for next year, so we will have to wait and see what happens in the end.
Via: FossPatents
"Android prevails"
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