In August, Motorola was seeking an import ban of the iPad and iPhone from the International Trade Commission due to patent infringement, but today Motorola has dropped the case. Since the seven non-standard-essential patents in question were never undisclosed, it’s hard to say why exactly Motorola backed off. Motorola’s statement clearly laid out that no out-of-court settlement was made, either.
It’s entirely possible that Motorola found they didn’t have a strong case, or they needed to prepare more documents in order to properly sue Apple, or there were some other outside forces at play that we just plum don’t know about. Conversely, Samsung has started its legal counterattack on Apple today, so the tension between Android and iOS isn’t likely to let up, even if for whatever reason Google wanted to lay off legally antagonizing Apple.
So, let’s open up the floor to wild speculation as to why Motorola launched the complaint in the first place, and what could have made them retract from proceedings so close to an official investigation.
Via: FOSS Patents