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Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints

By | October 30, 2010, 3:17pm PDT

Apple has sued Motorola over multi-touch patents in two separate lawsuits.

The complaints, first reported by Patently Apple, were filed Oct. 29 and cover six patents. In the first complaint, the main document is only 9 pages, but one exhibit—patent 7,479,949—is broken into two parts and weighs in at a whopping 362 pages. Motorola on Oct. 6 sued Apple for patent infringement.

In a nutshell, Apple is suing Motorola over its smartphone portfolio including the Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm.

The primary patent is 7,479,949, which covers touchscreen device, method and interface. Other patents in the Apple lawsuit include 6,493,002 and 5,838,315.

In its first complaint, Apple said:

Motorola directly infringes and/or will infringe the ’949 patent by making, using, selling, offering for sale, and importing the mobile devices and related software practicing the claimed inventions of the ’949 patent. Moreover, Motorola is aware of the ’949 patent, at least because Motorola was provided with a copy of this Complaint upon its filing. Motorola indirectly infringes the ’949 patent by knowingly inducing the infringement of these patents by end users of its mobile devices. Further, on information and belief, Motorola contributes to the infringement of the ’949 patent because Motorola knows that its mobile devices are made for use in infringement and are not staple articles of commerce suitable for substantial non-infringing use.

The second complaint is very similar, but covers patents 7,812,828, 7,663,607 and 5,379,430.

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The second complaint is very similar, but covers patents 7,812,828, 7,663,607 and 5,379,430.

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Patent, Apple Inc., Motorola Inc., Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

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Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
musdahi Updated - 14th Oct
Apple sues about it is bank that website attacked from the site support from any soldier site to the light home page is great Motorola
View in thread
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
jameskatt 30th Oct 2010
Motorola has a very slim profit margin. A lost to Apple would wipe it out and cause it to go into bankruptcy.

Good riddance, Motorola!
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Cross licensing
wackoae 30th Oct 2010
@jameskatt Or they can avoid the pain without spending a lot of money by cross licensing with Apple.
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Not so fast! at Least regarding touchscreens
Uralbas Updated - 31st Oct 2010
Before the iPhone ever existed, Motorola had a lot of phones that had touchscreens and multitouch, among them:

-Ming
-E690 (probably used stylus, can t remember)
-A668 (had finger multi touch)

Come to mind, I'm sure there are more, and these phones were marketed before 2007.

Now the Object Oriented Locator System. (5,379,430) maybe the only one that may hold any water, the rest most likely will get dismissed. Motorola can easily claim previous art with this and actually make money if other companies "sued" by Apple licensce the patent to protect themselves from Apple.

Samsung will be in a similar boat, as they also had similar phones.

Apple may in the long run regret this action as it has a huge potential to backfire and shield other competitors from "Apple's Treasure Patents"
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It can actually hurt Apple badly
Uralbas 31st Oct 2010
If Motorola is able to prove they had the technology first and can also prove they held patents for it. Apple's deck will crumble like cards and they can get counter sued for ALL phones they made and hit there money vault badly.

Deal is, it is easy to push HTC around, they are new comers to the business. Not so much the old heavy weights.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
Jimster480 1st Nov 2010
@uralbas HTC has been around for a long time. By just didn't sell devices here under the HTC brand. But they made palms, jornada, and many other pdas and smartohones, throughout the last decade.
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Typical Counter Lawsuit Action!
i2fun@... 3rd Nov 2010
@wackoae But Motorola holds all the aces in this game, having been in the Cell Phone business longer than any other manufacturer. What they are basically trying to do is get Apple's patents invalidated using prior art and their history as a pioneer in mobile technology. This was easy to see the moment Apple launched iPhone. Motorola has gone through all the steps of giving prior notice on launch of iPhones in 2007. This is just the phase where it'll go to court and with their overwhelming evidence kick the CrApple out Apple!!! grin ......my bet is on at least half of Apple's ridiculous common sense patents get invalidated and CrApple ends up paying the Piper that came way before them!!!
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
raimu koyo asu 5th Jul
Apple sees their iOS dominance slip away and resorts to the abuse of the utter corruption that is software patentability to try and save themselves.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
bynes69 20th Aug
@wackoae Thank you for this very useful information.
Nursing degree
fire science school
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
musdahi Updated - 14th Oct
Apple sues about it is bank that website attacked from the site support from any soldier site to the light home page is great Motorola
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So since they have a slim profit market
Mister Spock 31st Oct 2010
they should be forced into bankrupcy?

Why is it people fear competition for Apple?
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
garyleroy@... Updated - 2nd Nov 2010
@Mister Spock It's like any other religion; Apple is sacred and can do no wrong. It also supports its users addiction to gadgets they don't really need but like to imagine it makes them superior to the vast unwashed who haven't "seen the light". They can't use another product, even if it's more reliable, less expensive, and more functional because it won't support their feeling of being among the elite group.
Great example in the guy's post above; wishing for Motorola's demise so Apple can prosper more. All they need is a book of scriptures that talk about how "in the end, all its enemies will be brought to ruin, and the wicked will be destroyed, leaving only the Apple faithful to worship and live in a paradise surrounded by small screens filled with activities and chores to keep them from actually ever doing anything that matters.
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I disagree because...
statuskwo5 31st Oct 2010
@jameskatt Motorola does not manufacture smart phones only which means they have other revenue sources. In fact, they have several different foci (set-top boxes and digital video recorders to name a few) and so does Apple (mp3 players and computers, for example).
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Apple and M$ must die
Linux Geek 1st Nov 2010
@jameskatt
along with the patent trolls.
The closed source model is dead and this is the last gasp of the 2 dying monopolist dinosaurs!
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
babyboomer57 1st Nov 2010
@Linux Geek = King Troll
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
Gis Bun 1st Nov 2010
@jameskatt : You think Motorola is a small mom and pop company? Errrr. If there is a decision [this stuff can drag on for years], in the end, *if* Motorola is found guilty this stuff would result in an 8 digit fine. Not much more. You think it would be in the billions? *If* Motorola loses, they could just request to have the fine re-examined.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
Jimster480 1st Nov 2010
@jameskatt Or the bogus lawsuit will get thrown out of court. Or Google will step in with Microsoft and sue apple into bankruptcy. Because their frivolous patent trolling is becoming quite annoying. Patents on touch screen devices? Apple didn't invent touch screens. Nor did they invent any touch screen technology and they also weren't even the first to implement touch technology. So they should hold a total of 0 patents for a technology that they did nothing but use in a couple of their devices.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
DeusXMachina 2nd Nov 2010
@Jimster480
And seeing as how Apple is not suing on the issue of touch screens, what exactly is your point.

Question: Do you you actually know anything about touch technology or patent law? Because your comments make it clear that the answer to both is no.
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Of course
Tim Patterson 30th Oct 2010
Apple sees their iOS dominance slip away and resorts to the abuse of the utter corruption that is software patentability to try and save themselves.

It's time to put these anti-American companies in their place and say enough is enough.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
illegaloperation 30th Oct 2010
@Tim Patterson
One thing wrong with your theory: Motorola sued Apple before Apple counter sued Motorola
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
AdanC 30th Oct 2010
@Tim Patterson

LOL, Apple's iOS losing its dominance?

Hello it was Motorola who sued Apple first because they are completely clueless in smartphone technology so resorts to the abuse of the utter corruption that is software patentability to try and save themselves.
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Anti-American?
frogspaw 31st Oct 2010
@Tim Patterson
How does one of America's largest companies, acting to protect it's IP become anti-American? Do you understand anything at all about industry? Do you have a single idea for any other course of action other than resorting to the courts to resolve these disputes?
No... thought not *sigh*
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
snoop0x7b Updated - 1st Nov 2010
@frogspaw Methods for doing things in software shouldn't be patentable because mathematical formulas and algorithms are not meant to be patentable; and by definition software is the implementation of an algorithm. The only way that software patents work is for them to back-asswardsly argue that these things are "method for ...". And even so, every software developer creates different code, so the mechanism is different anyhow which means the patent shouldn't hold. But they do! That's the problem.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
DeusXMachina 2nd Nov 2010
@snoop0x7b

Thanks for confirming earlier suspicions about your not knowing what you are talking about. First, not "every software developer creates different code, so the mechanism is different anyhow."
Case in point, Microsoft caught red-handed stealing QT code from Apple, LINE-FOR-LINE, in order to create Video for Windows. They were so obtuse about it, they even left in the original Apple comments in the code!

More to the point, it does not matter if you implement it using different variable names, or using indirect referencing vs. register look ups. The algorithm remains unchanged.

"mathematical formulas and algorithms are not meant to be patentable"

Says who?
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
rfpower 30th Oct 2010
Apple made the iphone--- everyone else was making buggy whips , so what do they do ... they copy Apple's innovation !!
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That is an odd way to look at "innovation"
Mister Spock 31st Oct 2010
Apple has a buggy whip in mind until they incorporate someone else property into their phone, then they become the innovator?
It appears that you may have some trouble with the English language. The words you are confusing are Innovation" instead of "theft"
plain
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
Gis Bun 1st Nov 2010
@rfpower : Listen fanboy. You think Apple invented the smartphone? Companies such as RIM had it before them. all Apple did was get their marketing team to ask all the fanbois and fangurls to buy 5 of each model. happy

If you notice of late - everyone is taking Apple to court - not vice versa.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
DeusXMachina 2nd Nov 2010
@Gis Bun

Thanks for that substantive, and intellectually forceful reply.

Grow up.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
max_wedge 1st Nov 2010
@rfpower. And good luck to them. If they didn't, Apple would have no incentive to improve it's products. Yes Apple are innovative, and often have good ideas, but if Android didn't come out with an OS very similiar in fluidity to IOS, that also supports multi-tasking, would apple have introduced multi-tasking in iphone4? Probably not. Apple are very good at resting on their laurels. The pressure to compete keeps them on their toes.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
Jimster480 1st Nov 2010
@rfpower what are you saying guy.
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Anti-American? Apple? Where'd you get that from
Von Oben 30th Oct 2010
You must hold Motorola stock or just be generally ignorant if you think that it is OK to steal intellectual property that Apple has spent billions to invent and develop. Think before you write.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
ITOdeed 31st Oct 2010
@Von Oben
You should think before you write too. Apple didn't develop the technology. But they're spending billions, like you say, to steal it.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
DeusXMachina 2nd Nov 2010
@EatingHay

Bull. Please list a single technology Apple claims to have developed that they actually stole.

Here's a hint. Apple does not claim to have patented multi touch, per se, but rather the particular implementation algorithm. There is a reason that the interface on phones like the Voyager suck.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
snoop0x7b 1st Nov 2010
@Von Oben Software patents are bad anyhow. But regardless Apple is stealing Moto's IP as well (in addition to Nokia's).
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
StillChip 31st Oct 2010
Why do we fight like this? Why must every thought we have be processed through the legal system after the fact. If it is not possible to prevent this conflict except through spending billions to research it then something is seriously broken.
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Apple is the biggest tech company in the world so they are a bully
NonZealot 31st Oct 2010
According to the ZDNet rules, the underdog must always win. Apple is a gigantic tech bully, suing everyone else because their pile of cash is bigger than others'. Motorola should win this because they are the cute cuddly underdog.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
UsuallyWrong 31st Oct 2010
Do you remember when a small company, Apple, had their "window" graphics based OS ripped off by Microsoft (who arrogantly called their post-DOS OS "Windows"), took them to court and were crushed in the courts by Microsoft's gigantic tech bully lawyers. Does fairness really exist, or is greed in control?
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
Patanjali Updated - 31st Oct 2010
@UsuallyWrong
Wasn't 'tech bullying', but Apple's case failed on one of the key principles of design protection - the problem had to be capable of being solved in more than one way. They lost because there was only really one way for the 'look and feel' to be done.
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Wrong. Apple lost the case because their lawyers
frgough 1st Nov 2010
drafted a crappy contract and MS lawyers were able to prove in court that Apple actually granted MS permission to use its interface elements as part of the agreement for MS to write Word and Excel for the Mac.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
ConstableOdo 31st Oct 2010
More foolishness to upset Motorola investors even further. Motorola is clueless about the current phone industry and basically has to depend upon Google for the operating system guts that rules the present day smartphone business. This lousy company practically destroyed itself by incompetent management and is trying to blame Apple for stealing its IP. Motorola would have come out with RAZR after RAZR until RAZR 10 might have been too boring for consumers to use. Motorola did not even have other products in the pipeline and Zander lied to investors saying they did.

Motorola management is full of crooks that lined their pockets with cash while doing absolutely nothing. Buying up company after company only to throw those companies into disarray and eventually destroying those too. Losing revenue, taking away investor dividends and shedding employees is all Motorola did over the last few years, but the executives always made sure they got huge bonuses and pay raises year after year as the company went into the toilet. Motorola has no reason to sue Apple except for trying to get more money for the top executives. Motorola is going to go bankrupt by late next year because the way that whole company is run is an embarrassment to American industry.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
WinTard 1st Nov 2010
This ***-for-tat lawsuits & countersuits are an indication the Patent Law badly needs reform -- immediately! Probably because the Patent Office clerks are generally incompetent with understanding today's technology.

Here's a synopsis of Patent Law:
Lee Tien, Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation said:
Patent law protects inventions and gives the inventor (or his assignee) the right to exclude others from making, selling, or using the invention for 20 years from the date of the filing of the patent. Unlike copyright, patent law protects against independent invention by another person.

The bargain here is that in return for the patent, the inventor must provide enough information in the patent application to enable one "skilled in the art" to create the invention without much experimentation. Once a patent is awarded, the application is made public. By making the information public, the patentee contributes to society's store of knowledge.

A patent confers no affirmative rights, however, if you patent an improvement to someone else's invention, you can't practice the improvement without infringing on the underlying patent. If you invent and patent a new drug, you may still need regulatory approval before you can sell the drug.

To be patentable, an invention must be useful, novel, and "nonobvious" to one "skilled in the art." The novelty and nonobviousness requirements means that the invention must be a sufficient development in technology before the right to exclude is given. Developments that do not meet these high standards are denied protection.

(excerpt from p178-179 from Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering)

For more please see: EFF they are lawyers.

Since ridiculous patents are being awarded in the US and elsewhere (probably to the highest paying bidder), a just and fair method to invalidate these non-patents must be enacted because they harm society by preventing real technological progress beneficial to the entire Mankind.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/eff-supports-microsoft-seeking-make-it-easier
Quote
September 29th, 2010
EFF Supports Microsoft in Seeking to Make it Easier to Invalidate Patents
Legal Analysis by Michael Barclay

Today EFF, joined by Public Knowledge, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Apache Software Foundation, filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case in which Microsoft is trying to make it easier to invalidate an issued U.S. patent. If successful, this challenge should help in the fight against bad patents by lowering the standard required to prove that the patent is invalid to the same one required to prove infringement. It should especially help the free and open source community.

Here?s some background: In court, parties have to prove their case by some ?standard of proof.? In almost all civil cases, the standard is ?preponderance of the evidence? ? meaning it is more likely than not that the facts are true. When the question is invalidating a patent, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided that a defendant trying to prove a patent invalid must do so by a higher standard than normal civil cases, that of ?clear and convincing? evidence. ?Clear and convincing? means that the facts are ?highly probable,? which is a much more difficult standard to meet when trying to invalidate a patent than just a preponderance.

We must put an end to these patent trolling by anyone. Because it harms society by preventing competition and true technological advancement! I'm not singling out Apple, Oracle, Motorola, Nokia, HTC or Microsoft; but am merely saying enough is enough.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer. For legal questions or advice, consult a lawyer. And please visit the EFF, they are lawyers defending freedom in the digital area on our side, the end-users.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice.
~ Arcesilaus

An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere.
{American Proverb}

Every social injustice is not only cruel, but it is economic waste.
~ William Feather

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.
~ Winston Churchill
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OMG how messed up is your patent system over there?
Scrat 1st Nov 2010
Isn't it about time the citizens of the good 'ole US of A actually got off their backsides and started to lobby government about just how messed up the USPTO is?

So, according to patent no. 7,479,949, Apple owns the patent(?) to using one or more fingers to scroll vertically, one or more fingers to zoom (pinch to zoom) and one or more fingers to swipe from one screen to another.

Now, call me just a little cynical here, but this "patent" was filed on April 11, 2008 and issued on Jan 20, 2009. Anyone else see the problem here? (prior art going back to the 1970's perhaps?!?)

The next one is even funnier. Patent no. 6,493,002. That could pretty much cover any computer device (with a display) that has ever been made!

Patent no. 5,838,315 covers support for gadgets at a system software level. Ok, if not, where else would the support come from? The volume control? The earphone socket? Maybe the protective sleeve could support them?

Honestly, your patent system makes your country look like a joke. A country where the deepest pockets get to scare everyone else, regardless of any actual law present.

I would be ashamed to live in a country that performs such blind stupidity at a government level.

And yes, you can call that anti-American, because it is...
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Not unlike your country, or any other country
John Zern 1st Nov 2010
Scrat, so what was your point?
Its not the concept, but the size. Too many patents are being rubber stamped anymore because of the shear number of applications.

Should they look at them one at a time, I'm guessing there would be a whole heck less approved, especially some of the more assinine ones like you pointed out as examples.

You shouldn't be able to patent the use of "two finger gestures" as it natual.

Next we'll see Apple patenting the concept of "fingers" themselves. wink
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
DeusXMachina 2nd Nov 2010
@John Zern

Being that it is quite clear that neither you nor the OP is capable of understanding the original patent, or have enve read it for that matter, I fail to see why you feel competent to post.
For the record, neither of your summaries of this patent is even remotely accurate.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
comp_indiana 1st Nov 2010
No way motorola had ANYTHING like what Apple calls MultiTouch. They gotta be kidding. Touch screen is one thing, but they had NOTHING like the iPhone. And the 'Roids are a TOTAL IPHONE RIP-OFF. MOTO and HTC don't have a CHANCE of winning their suits with Apple. Anyone can see they are ripping off Apple. (Please don't insult our intelligence.)
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
snoop0x7b 1st Nov 2010
@comp_indiana Apple didn't invent multitouch either, but they were given patents related to it. The fact that detecting multiple fingers on a touch screen is patentable is something we should all be ashamed of. The technology has existed in various forms since the 1970s.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
DeusXMachina 2nd Nov 2010
@snoop0x7b

And again, Apple is not claiming to have patented "multiple fingers on a touch screen" so what is your point?
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Saw this coming when Apple was finally awarded the patents
frgough 1st Nov 2010
on multitouch last month.
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
snoop0x7b 1st Nov 2010
@frgough It's a bull-crap patent is what it is....
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Maybe I can patent the "user" ....
kd5auq 1st Nov 2010
and sue EVERYBODY!
wink
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RE: Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints
FCFord 1st Nov 2010
Patents and copyrights are a good and necessary thing, but they are being abused by most companies today. Where would automobiles be if the concept of the gas pedal or steering where had been patented. The real issue is with PTO

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