Yesterday the ITC transmitted a certified list of the record in the investigation of Motorola's complaint against Apple to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That's how I became aware of the fact that Motorola Mobility had filed a notice of appeal with the Federal Circuit on September 19, 2012. The wholly-owned Google subsidiary is appealing the ITC's August 24, 2012 opinion according to which Apple does not violate three of the patents-in-suit. The investigation was remanded to a judge with respect to one patent, but it's a final ruling with respect to the three patents the ITC threw out, and that's why Motorola can now appeal from those final parts of the ruling.
Today the Federal Circuit granted Apple's unopposed motion to intervene in this appeal. The appellee is the ITC, but Apple will also defend the Commission opinion.
These are the three patents on which Google (Motorola) still hopes to prevail:
U.S. Patent No. 5,636,223 on "methods of adaptive channel access attempts" (declared essential to IEEE 802.11, i.e., WiFi)
U.S. Patent No. 6,272,333 on a "method and apparatus in a wireless communication system for controlling a delivery of data"
U.S. Patent No. 6,246,697 on a "method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access signal" (declared essential to 3G/UMTS); an initial determination by an Administrative Law Judge had found Apple in infringement of this patent, but the Commission overruled the ALJ; the Mannheim Regional Court had previously ruled in Apple's favor with respect to this patent due to failure of proof
Earlier this year Apple also appealed an ITC decision in a case involving the same two parties. In that case, Motorola had been cleared of infringement of three Apple patents.
On a related note, Apple is soon going to ask the Federal Circuit for a rehearing of its recent reversal of the Galaxy Nexus preliminary injunction. Apple yesterday filed an unopposed motion for an extension of time. If this one is granted, Apple will have until November 26, 2012 (instead of November 12, 2012) to file its petition for rehearing en banc. Such rehearings are rarely granted.
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