Apple and Motorola have been locked in a bitter legal feud for a while. The bone of content between the two is the rights to certain patents which, both allege, the other side has violated. And now that Google has acquired Motorola Mobility, it has also been tossed into this legal fray by virtue of this acquisition. In the latest twist, a U.S. Circuit Court Judge has asked Google and Motorola to provide Apple with development information about Android.
This is not where things end. Given the fact that Google acquired Motorola while this legal battle was going on and has openly cited it’s interest in the patents of Motorola, the judge has also asked the two companies to divulge the details of this acquisition to Apple. A bitter task for Google, no doubt, who wouldn’t want Apple to know so much.
The judge who passed this ruling was of the opinion that sharing of this information was very important in the ‘discovery’ phase of the trial. Apparently, the court wishes to let Apple have a chance at thoroughly going through Android development information and then reveal, if possible, how it’s patents have been violated.
Even if we get a final ruling on this case sometime soon, things wouldn’t end there. As soon as this case is done, we have another case lined up in which Motorola has alleged that Apple has violated three of it’s patents. The first jury trail for the first case will be on June 11. And only after that, the second case will be commenced upon.
A fleeting glance on the history of lawsuits between Apple and Motorola reveal that either of them achieved little and the suits were simply designed to keep their products from being banned.
Image courtesy Nerds On Call.
[ttjad keyword=”android-device”]
