While Apple has been engaged in a number of high-profile patent lawsuits with its competitors offering Android-based hardware, one of the quieter disputes has gained new attention today following a discovery by FOSS Patents that Apple has in fact sued Motorola in Europe, claiming that the Motorola Xoom tablet infringes upon the design of Apple's products. The revelation comes in a court document filed in Germany and associated with the preliminary injunction granted against Samsung yesterday barring sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Prior to or simultaneously with the motion for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, Apple also filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola Xoom tablet. Here's a passage from the Samsung complaint that mentions two other lawsuits Apple instigated against iPad competitors -- Motorola and a local German company named JAY-tech...
The document does not state whether Apple has pushed for a preliminary injunction against the sale of the Xoom in the European Union as it did for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but Apple is presumably seeking a more permanent injunction against Motorola's tablet offering.
Apple also notes in its filing that a preliminary injunction against JAY-tech was granted and further upheld "in its entirety" following a hearing. Apple does not specify exactly what model of tablet from JAY-tech was the subject of the injunction, but JAY-tech last year began offering a budget 7-inch Android-based tablet, and the company no longer appears to be selling that product.
Motorola fired the first shot against Apple last October, claiming infringement of a series of 18 Motorola patents by a broad array of Apple's Mac and iOS products. Apple responded a few weeks later with a lawsuit focused on multi-touch functionality and targeting Motorola's Droid and other smartphones.
Things have generally been quiet between Apple and Motorola since the initial filings last year, but today's revelation makes clear that Apple has continued to press its case and gone on the offensive against not only Motorola's smartphones but also its tablets.
Anyone else notice that since MacRumors started posting these patent disputes as front page news that:
1) posts are a lot more aggressive with the conflicting nature of Apple v whoever
2) fanboys are out on both sides and there is little constructive debate (see posts above of, "can't innovate, litigate" versus "can't innovate, copy")
3) people simply don't understand either the complex nature of patent litigation, or believe they know it all. This leads to people thinking one side has 'won', when in reality, both sides will settle and continue their commercial relationships.
I believe we need a 'page 2' for this type of news, where interested parties can head. Right now, our community can look a tad ridiculous arguing over complex patent disputes as if we have the inside scoop.
Everyone is suing everyone else for patent infringement. Why don't they mutually agree to either open all the patents--thus paving the way for true innovation and exciting new products, or just pay each other royalties? It will probably all come out even in the end.
Because it won't encourage innovation. Why would Apple continue to innovate if other companies are allowed to sit back and copy what Apple did attempting to reap the benefit of the time and money Apple put into R&D?
Thursday February 4, 2021 1:58 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Serif today announced across-the-board updates for its popular suite of Affinity creative apps, including Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and the Apple award-winning Affinity Publisher for Mac, all of which were among the first professional creative suites to be optimized for Apple's new M1 chip.
"After another year which saw record numbers of people switching to Affinity, it's exciting to...
We've seen a lot of teasers about the Beats Studio Buds over the past month since they first showed up in Apple's beta software updates, and today they're finally official. The Beats Studio Buds are available to order today in red, white, and black ahead of a June 24 ship date, and they're priced at $149.99.
The Studio Buds are the first Beats-branded earbuds to truly compete with AirPods...
Google and the three major U.S. carriers, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, will all support a new communications protocol on Android smartphones starting in 2022, a move that puts pressure on Apple to adopt a new cross-platform messaging standard and may present a challenge to iMessage.
Verizon recently announced that it is planning to adopt Messages by Google as its default messaging...
Wednesday September 25, 2019 12:02 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple has teamed up with Maroon 5 to add the group's new song "Memories" to the Memories feature in the Photos app, allowing it to be used for photo slide show creations, reports Billboard.
"Memories" will be available as a soundtrack option for a limited time and it is available to iPhone and iPad users running the latest iOS 13 and iPadOS software.
Memories in the Photos app are created ...
Wednesday February 24, 2021 8:10 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's next-generation iPhone 13 lineup will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X60 5G modem, with Samsung to handle manufacturing of the chip, according to DigiTimes.
Built on a 5nm process, the X60 packs higher power efficiency into a smaller footprint compared to the 7nm-based Snapdragon X55 modem used in iPhone 12 models, which could contribute to longer battery life. With the X60 modem, iPhone...
The iPhone 13 is widely expected to come with Wi-Fi 6E capabilities, and while it may seem rather nuanced to the average consumer, with only improved speeds and being "up to date" in the realm of Wi-Fi technology, it's actually a fairly significant improvement, laying the groundwork for much of what we know the future holds.
To truly understand Wi-Fi 6E, MacRumors sat down for an exclusive...
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro arrived in October 2020 in a range of color options, with entirely new hues available on both devices, as well as some popular classics. The 12 and 12 Pro have different color choices, so if you have your heart set on a particular shade, you might not be able to get your preferred model in that color.
iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 mini and iPhone...
Wednesday April 21, 2021 6:38 am PDT by Sami Fathi
Apple yesterday announced a completely redesigned 24-inch iMac with the M1 Apple silicon chip. The new iMac, the first major redesign of the Mac desktop computer since 2012, has several changes compared to the previous generation.
In the aftermath of the event, a few new features and tidbits may have slipped under the radar, so we’ve compiled this list of some of the less-talked-about...
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone's past, present, and future.
The report first reflects upon the iPhone's lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed...
Wednesday June 30, 2021 12:19 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple recently dropped the $19.99 fee for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, making the older Mac updates free to download, reports Macworld.
Apple has kept OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion available for customers who have machines limited to the older software, but until recently, Apple was charging $19.99 to get download codes for the updates.
As of last week, these updates no...
Top Rated Comments
Wait nvm, after looking at the pics again that jay-tech company totes deserves to be sued.
1) posts are a lot more aggressive with the conflicting nature of Apple v whoever
2) fanboys are out on both sides and there is little constructive debate (see posts above of, "can't innovate, litigate" versus "can't innovate, copy")
3) people simply don't understand either the complex nature of patent litigation, or believe they know it all. This leads to people thinking one side has 'won', when in reality, both sides will settle and continue their commercial relationships.
I believe we need a 'page 2' for this type of news, where interested parties can head. Right now, our community can look a tad ridiculous arguing over complex patent disputes as if we have the inside scoop.
Because it won't encourage innovation. Why would Apple continue to innovate if other companies are allowed to sit back and copy what Apple did attempting to reap the benefit of the time and money Apple put into R&D?
If it wasn't for Apple there wouldn't be a Xoom...