The U.S. International Trade Commission has decided to investigate Apple’s allegations against Motorola. In October, the two handset makers accused each other of patent infringement. Apple charges the Schaumberg, Ill.-based Motorola violated six multi-touch patents.
If the ITC rules in Apple’s favor, importation and sale of Motorola smartphones could be banned in the United States. The patent spat erupted in early October when Motorola accused Apple of violating 18 patents and refusing to agree to license Moto’s technology. Apple fired back in late October, claiming Motorola had violated its patents.
This will be only the latest Apple case before the ITC. In early November, the agency ruled Apple had not presented enough evidence to support a patent violation claim against Nokia. Apple had alleged the mobile phone maker violated 13 patents.
[AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
