
Apple and Google's Motorola unit agree to settle smartphone patent litigation - jbraithwaite
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/us-apple-google-settlement-idUSBREA4F0S020140516
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leorocky
According to the article this settlement is limited to the Motorola unit that
is being sold to Lenovo and does not include any cross patent license. The
title makes it seem like Job's "Thermonuclear War" was finally at an end, and
that doesn't seem to be the case at all. The title ought to qualify it with
"Google's Motorola" or something.

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Alterlife
I'm sorry if I missed it... What does that mean though? Does it mean that
Lenovo will be acquiring a litigation free company, or just that Apple wants a
time-out with Google, and the game will continue once Lenovo is holding the
ball?

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mikhailt
It simply means that Google and Apple has agreed to stop all current lawsuits
against each other (Google still owns the patents that Apple filed lawsuits
on) at the moment.

These lawsuits can restart any time.

Apple and Google promises to work together on certain patent reform areas.
IMO, that's most likely related to IP trolls, those two companies are in the
top three list of companies constantly getting sued by IP trolls.

Lenovo is not involved here.

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guelo
Where's the actual joint statement from the companies?

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nutjob2
If you thinking this is a "kumbaya" moment, think again. They've merely
determined that the best they can do is litigate each other into a stalemate,
or that they don't have a enough of a competitive overlap to warrant a war.
This might be more of an "oligopoly" moment.

You have to wonder though: what would Steve Jobs have done?

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wutbrodo
> If you thinking this is a "kumbaya" moment, think again. They've merely
> determined that the best they can do is litigate each other into a
> stalemate, or that they don't have a enough of a competitive overlap to
> warrant a war. This might be more of an "oligopoly" moment.

I don't think anyone thinks that mutually assured destruction as applied to
patent lawsuits are based on a desire for world peace or anything like that.
Patent stalemates always work this way because it's (unfortunately) the best
way to work around the broken system[1]. Jobs was just a lunatic and this is a
reversion to a more normal state of affairs for non-patent-troll companies.

[1]other than sticking to a pledge to not use patents offensively, but that's
something of a prisoner's dilemma that a lot of companies understandably can't
resist, Apple included.

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bruceb
In other news a few dozen attorneys cancelled their yacht orders.

