Apple and Motorola have decided to dismiss all patent-related lawsuits against each other. The companies informed United States Court Of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding the same on May 16. You can read the court filing at the end of the report.
Apple and Google, which is the current parent company of Motorola Mobility, released a joint statement saying: “Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies. Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform. The agreement does not include a cross license.”
To remind you, the patent battle between Motorola and Google started back in 2010, when Apple sued the Motorola for infringing some of its patents, Motorola later sued back accusing Apple of violating three of its patents. These are just two of cases between the companies, which according to The Verge are said to be fighting each other in 20 ongoing legal matters between the two companies worldwide. After the latest agreement, the firms will drop all of these cases.
Legal experts say that this action from Apple is merely a symbolic one and the actual news will a similar agreement between Apple and Samsung, which doesn’t seem to be happening.
“It’s largely symbolic. Motorola isn’t as big of a competitor anymore. When they decide to drop everything with Samsung, then we’ll be talking,” Michael Risch, a law professor at Villanova University, told Bloomberg.