Apple and Motorola step up the lawsuits

Apple have their gloves well and truly off. They have recently amended their lawsuit against Motorola to include 12 more patents. This now means that Apple have 24 patent infringements pending against Motorola, and Motorola still have 18 patents filed against Apple.

The legal wranglings have been going on now for many months, with Motorola first suing Apple in October over what was classed as a ‘preemptive' strike after Apple sued HTC for violation of smartphone patents. HTC and Motorola are two of the biggest Android based smartphone makers across the globe.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO said at the time “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it, We've decided to do something about it.” Fighting talk indeed.

Motorola said that Apple refused to pay a license after long discussions, claiming Apple infringed upon patents relating to technologies that include 3G, GPRS, 802.11 wireless and antenna design.

After the initial filing, Apple then returned with a countersuit saying that 12 of their patents were being infringed upon by Motorola. Apple have recently added 12 additional patents to their lawsuit against Motorola countering a preemptive request filed by Motorola in October for a declaratory judgement that would block Apple from using those patents against Motorola in court.

Electronista have reported that Apple have requested that Motorola's declaratory judgement case which was filed in Delaware be dismissed or moved to Wisconsin, where Apple's suit against Motorola was filed. Apple are saying that since Motorola is already suing Microsoft in Wisconsin, moving the declaratory judgement case there should not be an issue.

Apple are always in the press for legal cases, and are actually classed as the ‘world's most sued tech company' meaning that they have been forced to expand their lethal legal team.

In 2009 for instance they were faced to deal with 27 patent infringement lawsuits alone.

KitGuru says: Will there be a clear winner or loser? We will keep you posted.

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