Motorola Drops ITC Lawsuit Against Apple

Well over a month ago, Motorola filed a bunch of patent infringement claims against Apple with the International Trade Commission (ITC), and wanted an import ban on virtually all Apple products including Macs, iPhones and iPads. However, Motorola has withdrawn the lawsuit entirely without an explanation. The company says that no agreement has been reached with Apple, so we're left scratching our heads.

At this point, we can only speculate as to why Motorola dropped the lawsuit without any settlement from either side. Usually, a withdrawal like this would indicate that the Motorola and Apple have reached some kind of settlement, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, so now we're only left wondering what's going on in Motorola's head.

It's possible that Motorola felt that they no longer thought the lawsuit was strong enough to beat Apple, and FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller also speculates that Motorola's issues with tracking down copies of all the needed certified documents had something to do with it. Either reasons are certainly realistic.

Apple and Motorola are currently engaged in various lawsuits against each other, including another lawsuit that Motorola filed against Apple with the ITC in 2010. That one is still active, and while an administrative law judge ruled it invalid, the ITC disagreed, so the case was sent back to the judge, and he wrote in a filing yesterday that he is targeting an April 2013 finish date for the lawsuit.

[via The Verge]