Judge is sick and tired of Apple and Motorola’s bullshit, tosses case

Written by

Philip Elmer-DeWitt for Fortune:

Finally, it seems, he had heard enough. On Thursday, Judge Richard A. Posner, a jurist famous for cutting through thickets of legalese to the nub of an issue, took one of the mobile phone industry’s most closely watched patent trials — Apple v. Motorola — and tossed it out of his courtroom.


  • Rob

    No, he cancelled the JURY trial. The possibility of a bench trial still exists.

    See: http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/06/apple-motorola-jury-trial-in-chicago.html

  • lucascott

    I give it 24 hours before Apple will file at the district level to have his cancellation etc overturned

  • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

    Me too. I think the amount of legal garbage right now is ridiculous! Apple is a company I love but their antics are pushing the limit.

    All those on the defense now trying to play offense [HTC, Samsung, etc] would surely back off if Apple did, I presume. They seem to be a badger backed into a corner fighting their way out, which perpetuates the ridiculousness.

    • http://twitter.com/hypothesard Hypothesard

      [HTC, Samsung, etc] would surely back off if Apple did

      Hmm? O_o You mean THey’d stop photocopying Apple’s products?

      It may reasonably be called ridiculous, abusive and I think Those Patent ware are exactly that for the most part. But That’s The game, they all know the rules and are engaged in The Game. If They don’t want to be tackled or benched, they know what to do, bu t they don do It, so why Apple should just give up and Forfeit their R&D?

      This Horace Dediu Video is about something entirely but could apply also to the Patent War @2min24sec https://vimeo.com/42689537 Literally : “It’s magnificent, but this isn’t war” (Miscommunication led to massive casualties)

      Here, the miscommunication is between Android manufacturers, which should by regrouped under Google-Android Banner (as there is NO Patent war between Apple and them about Windows Phone)

      Because of that miscommunication Apple is able to exhaust their resources, not only by causing big legal pending but also by delaying (let’s not be naive here Actual Banning of those competitors would merely be the cherry on the top) product of the competitors…

      Let’s see how HTC is doing? in Samsun’s case, it’s more complicated as they stopped releasing factual sales numbers more than a year ago and the company isn’t only doing smartphones. For Motorola… well, they’ve been bought by Google (still pending but virtually in effect)…

      I agree that those are dirty tactics, but by the lack of actual regulations protecting each one’s own R&D (Apple vs Microsoft about GUI anyone?) Companies use what is available…

      [Sorry about the lack of punctuation, bad grammar and typos, English is only my 4th language]