Just over a week ago, Apple filed requests with the Western District Court of Wisconsin and the Southern District Court of Florida to put their current patent battle with Motorola at a stand-still. In the request, Apple argued that Motorola’s acquisition deal with Google created a situation in which Motorola does not have standing to litigate or settle legal disputes, as it has ceded its patent control over to Google.
Well, Motorola wasn’t cool with this plan and has asked the court to keep things moving along. In the 15 pages of legal jargon, Motorola says that if the court is leaning toward granting the stay for Apple, then Motorola would like the opportunity to fix its standing issues.
Here’s the full quote from the response:
Right now, it’s still kind of unclear what Motorola means by “cure the defects.” The merger agreement between Motorola and Google (most of which is highly confidential) includes clauses that limit Motorola’s ability to litigate and settle, without the consent of Google. At the same time, Google can’t withhold said consent without a solid reason.
Chances are that the most likely way to “cure the defects” would be an additional agreement between Google and Motorola that allows Motorola to move forward with this litigation. Still, Motorola made absolutely no mention of actually talking this out with Google, nor is there a suggestion that Google will agree to it. But without Google’s permission, Apple “has a strong case as far as MMI’s right to settle is concerned,” according to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller.
Until the Googorola transaction is officially closed, Motorola must operate as its own independent company under its own management, according to the terms of the agreement. However, in whatever way Google and Motorola are allowed to communicate at this time, it would be shocking to find that Google was unaware of Motorola’s request to push things along.