US judge dismisses Apple vs. Motorola patent lawsuit

Apple likes lawsuits. Anyone who keeps keeps up with the mobile tech industry will tell you the same thing. More than a few Android OEMs have faced lawsuits from the Cupertino legal team, and unfortunately, sometimes those lawsuits have some pretty serious consequences. Not all of the lawsuits end in Apple’s favor, though, and in this case of Apple against Motorola, the legal train stopped before it ever really got started.

Not too long ago, Apple filed a lawsuit against Motorola. It wasn’t about the patents themselves, but instead about licensing those patents. Apple claimed Motorola’s licensing practices were unfair. Late last week, however, District Judge Barbara Crabb questioned whether or not she had the authority to hear the claims made by Apple, and ultimately dismissed the case on Monday. Apple declined to comment, but a spokesperson for Google said they were pleased with the order. Apple did file a legal brief afterwards, though, and claimed Judge Crabb did have the authority to hear the claims.

Apple posts new statement about Samsung case after court rebuke

After a rather stinging development this week when the UK court of appeals chastised Applefor their recent attempt to post a court-ordered statement on their web site concerning one of their many lawsuits with Samsung, Apple has posted a new statement on their UK web site. Apple was required to post a statement indicating Samsung did not copy the iPad when producing the Galaxy line of tablet devices. Apple does not exactly say that, but they do state that Samsung does not infringe on a specific Apple registered design. The new statement probably meets the legal requirements of the UK court.

Apple managed to get a new statement on their homepage that meets the court’s font size mandate within the time frame mandated by the court. Despite protesting that it would take two weeks to do so, Apple managed to achieve this coding feat within the 48 hours set forth by the court. It is not clear whether Apple’s attorneys realized they were representing a client that is a huge technology firm and might possibly have the resources to update a web page. Another alternative is that someone in Apple woke up to the fact that the required posting time frame will now result in the statement being on the web site well into the holiday shopping season and perhaps it would be best to just get things over with as quickly as possible. Apple appears to have taken care to not include any sneaky commentary regarding the court’s ruling in relation to results from other courts. If there is anything positive for Apple in this particular incident it is that the court allowed them to put the statement in the footer of the homepage instead of front and center.