Law and Innovation

Fresh and interesting memo posted on the European Commission's website about frequently asked questions concerning these antitrust decisions on standard essential patents (SEPs) - Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics. I also recommend you this   Beginner's Guide To Standards-Essential Patent, Standard-Developing Organizations And [F]RAND Terms In The Smartphone Patent Wars. Happy reading and learning!  " What is an injunction? An injunction is a court order aimed at preventing the continuation of a patent infringement. Generally, it includes the prohibition to sell the product infringing the patent. Such injunctions can be preliminary – as a precautionary measure typically for the time of the assessment of the case on the merits by the court. Injunctions can also be permanent as a result of the decision on the merits by a court. What is a standard essential patent (SEP)? SEPs are patents essential to implement a specific industry standard.  Thi...

Fresh and interesting press release from the European Commission which  found that Motorola Mobility infringed EU competition rules by misusing standard essential patents. Happy reading! "The European Commission today adopted a decision which finds that Motorola Mobility's (Motorola) seeking and enforcement of an injunction against Apple before a German court on the basis of a smartphone standard essential patent (SEP) constitutes  an abuse of  a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules in view of the particular circumstances in which the injunction was used (see also  MEMO/14/322 ). The Commission has ordered Motorola to eliminate the negative effects resulting from it. The Commission has also taken a commitment decision in a separate investigation concerning Samsung (see  IP/14/490 ). Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia said:  "The so-called smartphone patent wars should not occur at the expense of...

Fresh and interesting BREAKING NEWS! ( from BI) . "There are several reports out now, one  from Reuters , one from TechCrunch , and one from  China Daily , that Lenovo is going to buy Motorola Mobility from Google for $2 billion to $3 billion. If the reports are true, this would be a huge writedown for Google. Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion.Motorola has been running semi-independently from Google since the acquisition went through. Last year, Motorola released its first flagship phone since becoming a Google company, the Moto X. The Moto X was well-reviewed, but it's unclear how many were sold. Motorola has steadily been dropping the Moto X's price since the launch last fall.We've reached out to Google for comment and will update when we get a response. Google reports earnings tomorrow, so the company may wait until then to make a formal announcement". Here is the message from the Official Blog of Google: "We’ve just signed an agreeme...

Last Monday, on August 26, 2013, the Microsoft Corporation v. Motorola Mobility (a wholly-owned Google subsidiary) breach-of-FRAND-contract trial kicked off in Seattle  [1] . It’s already the second trial in this case; a first trial took place in November 2010  [2] . The  federal jury in Seattle has already rendered a verdict on this case,  and Microsoft has won again.  Even though a case between two giants is always exciting, this article will just deal with the meanings of technical legal terms surrounding this case, such as standards-essential patent (SEP), Standard-Developing Organizations   (SDO) and FRAND/RAND terms  [3] ; terms which also have significant interest and impact in the smartphone patent wars. As we all know, the economic role of intellectual property rights , more precisely patents, is very significant. The patent system promotes innovation and economic growth by providing incentives to inventors to apply their knowledg...