Apple Wins Long-Term Protection from Ban on Sales of 3G-Enabled Devices in Germany

All this for $12 billion.

In December, a court decided that Apple's offer was not FRAND and granted an injunction against the 3G products.

Now Apple has made another offer to Motorola and the court has decided that now it is FRAND so has lifted the injunction.

Where is the big win apart of the FUD that Mueller is spreading?






According to the judges, the troll here was Apple, not Motorola

Your reading comprehension has hit a a new time low.

A. We know Google wanted 2.5 %
B. We know Apple offered less and the Lower court ruled against Apple
C. We know Google didn't accept Apple's initial offer and demanded 2.5 %
D. We know Apple offered more but still less than 2.5 %
E. We know Google declined
F. We know the higher court said Apple's new offer was good enough to lift any ban
G. We know Google hasn't ended the lawsuit
F. We know the higher court has delayed the ban because it believes Apple's offer was good enough for FRAND
G. We know Google disagrees.

Who is the real troll here ?

Google.

I say Google now because their purchase of Motorola has been approved.

According to the judges, the troll here was Apple, not Motorola

Er, no.

The Karlsruhe Court formally told MMI in its ruling (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-27/apple-wins-temporary-ruling-on-german-ipad-iphone-sales-1-.html) its refusal to accept Apple's offer is potentially a violation of antitrust law.

“At the current state of the proceedings, it is to be assumed that Motorola Mobility would violate its duties under antitrust rules if it continues to ask Apple to stop the sales,” the court said in a statement.

This is a "big win" for Apple because it takes the Injunction tool out of MMI/Google's hand.

Google and Motorola aren't really interested in royalties from Apple. They want Apple to cross-license its non-FRAND patents, because without them, its Android phone user experience is going to be compromised.

Google/MMI's strategy was based on using German courts (which give rights holders greater power in patent disputes) to issue Injunctions that would prevent the iPhone being sold in Germany - one of Europe's biggest markets - until the case could be settled. All it needed to do was keep rejecting whatever offer Apple put forth - or make their own "offer" that nobody could accept.

The flaw in Google/Motorola's reasoning was relying on Standard-Essential Patents. They figured since Apple couldn't make a working phone without them, they'd have them over a barrel. But what is happening now is that courts and regulatory bodies are waking up to the dangers of what they are doing.

If Google/Motorola can't use the Injunction tool to get a ban in place, then they are simply going to have to wait for the court to rule on what a "Fair and Reasonable" royalty is. Its almost certainly not going to be 2.5% of the sales price of the device. But, even if it was, thats not what Google/Motorola wanted. They wanted to force Apple to have to cross-license.

I'll also note that this is also a huge win for Microsoft: Google/Motorola are trying the same thing with them. They are demanding a 2.5% royalty rate on PCs and other devices on their wi-fi and H264 video patents. If they could get an injunction preventing Microsoft from selling Windows in Germany it would be catastrophic - something MS couldn't accept. So they were hoping to use the threat of an injunction to force MS to cross-license its non-FRAND IP, for which a number of Android phone makers are already paying Microsoft per-handset royalties.

Read Microsoft's post on the subject (http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2012/02/22/google-please-don-t-kill-video-on-the-web.aspx).

Unfortunately, Motorola has refused to make its patents available at anything remotely close to a reasonable price. For a $1,000 laptop, Motorola is demanding that Microsoft pay a royalty of $22.50 for its 50 patents on the video standard, called H.264. As it turns out, there are at least 2,300 other patents needed to implement this standard. They are available from a group of 29 companies that came together to offer their H.264 patents to the industry on FRAND terms. Microsoft’s patent royalty to this group on that $1,000 laptop?

Two cents.

I think we all know who the Patent Troll in the Courtroom is.

In December, a court decided that Apple's offer was not FRAND and granted an injunction against the 3G products.

Now Apple has made another offer to Motorola and the court has decided that now it is FRAND so has lifted the injunction.

According to the judges, the troll here was Apple, not Motorola

I think this is a gross simplification of what actually transpired. What Apple offered was not considered acceptable and by all accounts what was being demanded was not acceptable. So Apple iteratively amended their offer, as they have been doing for a long time, until the Judges were satisfied.

Apple knew that MMI was always going to find something to grouse about, but it needed to find out at which point the appeals court would conclude that enough is enough and tell MMI that refusing to accept this proposal is, at least based on the court's preliminary finding, an antitrust violation.

This means Apple's approach paid off and worked. Just because they amended the offer doesn't mean they gave them 2.25%, that's ludicrous. If anything, the Judges are now more likely to side with Apple and Microsoft's complains that Motorola is violating anti-trust.

I'm glad to see FRAND patent trolling not being tolerated.

I am wondering what Google/Motorola/Android's game plan is. They surely know they can't really get away with using FRAND patents as a weapon...

Is it an expensive war of attrition they are after?

I'm also left wondering if Tim Cook follow Steve's zeal to protect Apple's ideas?

Ah, delicious drama.

Er, no.

The Karlsruhe Court formally told MMI in its ruling (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-27/apple-wins-temporary-ruling-on-german-ipad-iphone-sales-1-.html) its refusal to accept Apple's offer is potentially a violation of antitrust law.



This is a "big win" for Apple because it takes the Injunction tool out of MMI/Google's hand.

Google and Motorola aren't really interested in royalties from Apple. They want Apple to cross-license its non-FRAND patents, because without them, its Android phone user experience is going to be compromised.

Google/MMI's strategy was based on using German courts (which give rights holders greater power in patent disputes) to issue Injunctions that would prevent the iPhone being sold in Germany - one of Europe's biggest markets - until the case could be settled. All it needed to do was keep rejecting whatever offer Apple put forth - or make their own "offer" that nobody could accept.

The flaw in Google/Motorola's reasoning was relying on Standard-Essential Patents. They figured since Apple couldn't make a working phone without them, they'd have them over a barrel. But what is happening now is that courts and regulatory bodies are waking up to the dangers of what they are doing.

If Google/Motorola can't use the Injunction tool to get a ban in place, then they are simply going to have to wait for the court to rule on what a "Fair and Reasonable" royalty is. Its almost certainly not going to be 2.5% of the sales price of the device. But, even if it was, thats not what Google/Motorola wanted. They wanted to force Apple to have to cross-license.

I'll also note that this is also a huge win for Microsoft: Google/Motorola are trying the same thing with them. They are demanding a 2.5% royalty rate on PCs and other devices on their wi-fi and H264 video patents. If they could get an injunction preventing Microsoft from selling Windows in Germany it would be catastrophic - something MS couldn't accept. So they were hoping to use the threat of an injunction to force MS to cross-license its non-FRAND IP, for which a number of Android phone makers are already paying Microsoft per-handset royalties.

Read Microsoft's post on the subject (http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2012/02/22/google-please-don-t-kill-video-on-the-web.aspx).

I think we all know who the Patent Troll in the Courtroom is.

This is an excellent analysis of the larger game being played here between all four companies and I wish Mac Rumors had more commentary like this.

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And this is what has happened, UNTIL the offer was ruled as FRAND there has been an injunction. The moment the offer was FRAND the injunction was lifted

Oletros, clearly you understand what occured here, but I'm failing to understand the point of your posts.

The obvious winnner here is Apple becuase thier strategy to find the lowest possible agreeable deal to German courts was a success. By starting low and iteratively increasing their offer until Motorola was forced to accept it by the courts is a win.

Apple is also the clear winner here becuase the talk of anti-trust is now on the table in the courts. There can be no question as to the ramifications of continuing to extort Apple and Microsoft with these patents beyond the point of reasonability. How do you establish the point of reasonability? See Apple's strategy in my previous paragraph.

It's also a win for Apple because injunction is now completely off the table. Off the table for so long that Apple can easilly move on to new technologies before the trial is even complete.

Win, Win, Win for Apple. The end.

I think it's great that you can read and repeat what you read. However, that has no bearing what what I, vrDrew, and others are saying.

more words

Ugh, whatever dude. Have a nice day.

Big win for Apple.

This is Apple we are talking about here..:) Very protective, very litigious...It's become part of the Apple way of doing things. much is also at stake here too.

Apple had licensed FRAND technologies when it's offered at a FAIR rate.

This is about a company going under trying to extort unreasonable amount of license fee for FRAND patents.