Grant Gross
Senior Writer

Motorola files patent lawsuits against Apple

news
Oct 6, 20102 mins

Motorola alleges that Apple has infringed 18 patents in its iPhone, iPad, and other devices

Motorola has filed two patent lawsuits and a patent complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that a wide range of Apple products infringe its patents.

The three complaints cover 18 Motorola patents, including communication technologies related to W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), GPRS (general packet radio service), 802.11, and antenna design, as well as smartphone technologies related to wireless e-mail, proximity sensing, application management, and location-based services, Motorola said in a press release.

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The patents cover technologies used in Apple’s handheld iPhone, iPad and iTouch products, some Mac computers and services, MobileMe, and the App Store, Motorola said.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments on the complaints.

In addition to the complaint filed with the ITC, Motorola has filed patent infringement lawsuits in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida, the company said. Motorola’s complaint with the ITC asks the agency to prohibit Apple from importing products that infringe the 18 patents.

“Motorola has innovated and patented throughout every cycle of the telecommunications industry evolution, from Motorola’s invention of the cell phone to its development of premier smartphone products,” Kirk Dailey, corporate vice president of intellectual property at subsidiary Motorola Mobility, said in a statement. “We have extensively licensed our industry-leading intellectual property portfolio, consisting of tens of thousands of patents in the U.S. and worldwide.”

Motorola and Apple engaged in “lengthy negotiations” about Motorola’s patents, but Apple refused to buy licenses, the company said.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant’s e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

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