| Log In | Register Now

Apple Files EU Patent Complaint, Says Motorola Mobility

February 19, 2012 10:42 AM GMT

FOLLOW IBT: YOUR ONE-STOP NEWS SITE

(Photo: Reuters / Robert Galbraith)<br>One App Store to rule them all: Tables turn as Apple iOS accelerates, leaving Android in its dust. We reported previously that Android was expected to overtake the Apple iPhone by the end of 2012 for the rate of release of new applications delivered to the platform. Android jobs had been previously growing faster than those for the iPhone.

(Photo: Reuters / Robert Galbraith)
One App Store to rule them all: Tables turn as Apple iOS accelerates, leaving Android in its dust. We reported previously that Android was expected to overtake the Apple iPhone by the end of 2012 for the rate of release of new applications delivered to the platform. Android jobs had been previously growing faster than those for the iPhone.

Apple has asked EU anti-trust regulators to step in and settle a technology patent dispute between the company and Motorola Mobility, according to Motorola Mobility.

The move came after regulators on both sides of the Altantic said they would intervene to prevent companies from gouging rivals when they license patents essential to ensuring different communications devices work together.

"On February 17, 2012, the company received a letter from the European Commission notifying it that the Commission has received a complaint against Motorola Mobility, Inc. by Apple, Inc. regarding the enforcement of MMI's standards-essential patents against Apple allegedly in breach of MMI's FRAND (fair and reasonable) commitments," Motorola Mobility said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

FOLLOW IBTIMES

"Apple's complaint seeks the Commission's intervention with respect to standards-essential patents," it said.

Motorola Mobility, which won a preliminary injunction against Apple in Germany in December last year, accused the iPhone maker of infringing its technology patents in a Florida court last month.

Last week Google secured EU and U.S. approval to acquire Motorola Mobility for its portfolio of patents. The deal still needs clearance from regulators in China, Taiwan and Israel.

The European Commission, which oversees competition matters across the 27-country European Union, is now investigating whether legal tactics used by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd against Apple breaches EU antitrust rules.