PATENTS : APPLE COMPLAINT AGAINST MOTOROLA.

The patent war that Apple, Motorola, Samsung and Google are waging in Europe is set to take a new twist after Apple lodged a complaint with the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition against Motorola. The Commission, which on 31 January opened an investigation into the allegedly abusive use of patents by Samsung against Apple, confirmed it had received a complaint from Apple with regards to similar practices by Motorola.

The Apple group finds that Motorola is making abusive use of patents to distort competition in the EU, inter alia. Apple is therefore launching multiple legal proceedings against Motorola for violation of intellectual property. Motorola committed to commercialise licences in a reasonable and non-discriminatory manner.

PATENTS FOR SMARTPHONES

The protagonists are up in arms over the use of standard essential patents for smartphones or tablets, which are held by private companies but are used as standards in the industry, in line with international standards and the regulatory bodies. These patents are distributed under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory' (FRAND) licences. The terms of the licences state that the licence holders must make an honest and reasonable offer for the use of the...

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