A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
Motorola is suing Apple for patent infringement. The one-time car-radio maker is effectively accusing it of being "a johnny-come-lately phone maker". Moto's beef is over intellectual property used by the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It's just the latest mobile vendor to take a rival to court over patent infringement. Moto says it invented many of the technologies used by Apple in its iDevices, citing 18 allegedly-infringed patents. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers try to keep track of who's suing whom.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention fictional future ads...
(MOT) (AAPL)
Charles Riley drives the story:
Motorola Inc. ... has filed three complaints against Apple over alleged patent infringements ... alleging that Apple's popular iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and some of its computers infringe on Motorola's patents. ... [It's] the latest in a flurry of mobile patent disputes. On Friday, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Motorola, saying the smartphone maker had infringed on nine patents. ... Apple filed a lawsuit in March against HTC. ... And in August, Oracle sued Google.
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[Motorola's] complaints were filed with the International Trade Commission as well as in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida.
Nick Farrell summarizes the argument, in his own, unique way:
Motorola said it came up with the original ideas, while Apple insists that they sprang fully formed from the genius of Steve Jobs. ... Ideas like Mobileme and the App Store ... wireless communication technologies, such as WCDMA (3G), GPRS, 802.11 and antenna design ... wireless email, proximity sensing, software application management, location-based services and multi-device synchronisation.
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Kirk Dailey, corporate VP of intellectual property at Motorola Mobility ... said that after Apple's late entry into the telecommunications market, the two firms engaged in lengthy negotiations, but Apple has refused to license Motorola's technology patents.
Florin Troaca gets out his atlas:
The Schaumburg-based company goes as far as asking the ITC to issue an Exclusion Order barring Apples importation of infringing products, prohibiting further sales ... and halting [their] marketing, advertising, demonstration and warehousing of inventory for distribution and use.
Chris Foresman tries to make sense of it all:
Many of these lawsuits could take several years to wind their way through the courts. ... Patent licensing has become an enormous legal albatross for anyone attempting to build and sell a smartphone.
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Smartphones are one of the biggest consumer electronics segments by sales revenue ... [so] expect a protracted fight, and its hard to imagine the outcome will be pretty.
Ashby Jones adds:
The complaints are the latest developments in long-running disputes involving several key competitors. ... Everybodys jockeying hard for position.
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The Motorola lawsuits come as the line between computer manufacturers and mobile-device makers blurs, with ... Apple and Hewlett-Packard making bigger moves in the mobile sector, while traditional handset makers ... enter the tablet market. The moves have caused new rivalries between competitors.
Richi Jenningsis an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com.
