Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (NYSE:MMI) made a request to the International Trade Commission to get them to investigate Apple, in order to see if they infringed on patents for their most popular products, including the iPhone and iPad. Just last month, Motorola asked them if they could determine whether or not select Apple products violated section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
If it’s discovered that Apple is violating Motorola’a patents, the ITC will issue exclusion to cease-and-detest on their products.
Interestingly enough, Motorola filed the request a week before the ITC ruled that didn’t violate three of their patents covering the 3G technology. However, a fourth patent was sent back to the administrative law judge, in order to see if Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had indeed violated patents in their mobile products. Unfortunately for Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (NYSE:MMI), this could take an entire year for the judge to make a final ruling on the case.
The most current investigation into Apple’s products hasn’t yielded anything, and probably won’t, for a while at least. According to CNET, the International Trade Commission will need to assign the case to one of their administrative law judges. The law judge must then schedule and hold an evidentary meeting. After all of that, the judge will then make the initial determination. This will then be reviewed by a panel of judges who work for the ITC. Of course, all of that is no guarantee that there will be a final determination and even that could still take months.
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (NYSE:MMI) is definitely going after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The fact that they’re choosing a long and lengthy route in hopes of catching Apple stealing patents isn’t probably the best thing for their company, especially if nothing turns up. Nonetheless, it’s still interesting to see the tables turn on Apple. The good news is that I highly doubt Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has anything to worry about. They’re an innovative company that sets the standard in technology.
