Last year, Motorola brought three more German lawsuits against Apple in Germany than I knew. I only found out today because I did some follow-up based on a U.S. discovery request that Apple's counsel mentioned yesterday at a Motorola Mobility v. Apple Inc. hearing in Mannheim. My next post will also be related to that follow-up. In this process, I found Apple filings with district courts in different parts of the United States that list all of the lawsuits Motorola brought against Apple in Germany.
So far, I was aware of Mannheim lawsuits involving three different Motorola patents: two FRAND patents and one non-FRAND patent. In Mannheim, Motorola is asserting those patents, in a total of five different lawsuits, against two Apple entities: Apple Inc. (Cupertino) and Apple Sales International, Apple's Ireland-based European distribution entity.
I knew that Apple had brought patent and design rights infringement actions against Motorola in Munich and Düsseldorf. What I found out today is that Motorola is also suing in Düsseldorf. In that city, which is a well-known venue in the ongoing smartphone patent wars because of Apple's injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola is using the same three patents as in Mannheim, but it's asserting them against Apple Retail Germany GmbH, the legal entity operating all of the official German Apple Stores, i.e., Apple's brick-and-mortar stores (the German online store uses a URL belonging to Apple Inc., and customers enter into a contractual relationship with Apple Sales International).
I can say with absolute certainty that the two FRAND-pledged patents known from the Mannheim cases are being used in Düsseldorf. That's what the U.S. filings I read clearly say. Those documents also mention a third Düsseldorf case in which Apple Retail Germany GmbH is the defendant, and it's hard to imagine -- based on the overall pattern -- that Motorola would be using a different non-FRAND patent in that action than the one it's asserting in Mannheim against other Apple entities.
At this stage it's unknown where the Düsseldorf cases stand. Düsseldorf is a bit slower than Mannheim and Munich (though very fast compared to most courts in the United States, or the ITC). I believe we will see decisions within a very few months, and trials may already have taken place or will otherwise take place in the near term.
I have put together the following table that lists all of the German Motorola Mobility v. Apple cases and key data (date of complaint, trial date, decision date, outcome, appeals):
EP1010336 | EP1053613 | EP0847654 | |
Apple Inc. | venue: | venue: | venue: |
Apple Sales | venue: | venue: | venue: | Apple Retail | venue: | venue: | venue: |
The German legal process doesn't provide the kind of transparency that is common in the United States. As odd as it may seem, I have a harder time finding out what goes on in my country (or even in my area, Munich) than what happens in California or Washington -- and I frequently depend on filings from overseas to discover what's going on here. In addition, I now try to attend all German smartphone patent trials (and pronouncements of decisions) in order to gather additional information there. Tapping those different sources, I try to put the pieces of the puzzle together as best as I can.
In addition, I frequently encourage companies to provide me with more information. Now that some of these cases reach the stage of enforcement, I believe it makes more sense than ever to ensure that accurate information is available to everyone, and I gladly make my blog available to serve as a multiplier of such information.
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