Update
[h=1]Google's Motorola Mobility Withdraws Patent Complaint Against Apple[/h]
(RTTNews.com) - In a surprise move, Google Inc.'s (
GOOG) Motorola Mobility said Tuesday that it has withdrawn a patent infringement complaint that it filed against Apple Inc. (
AAPL) with the U.S. International Trade Commission or ITC.
Motorola Mobility, a maker of Android-based smartphones, did not provide any reasons for its withdrawal of the complaint.
Google's patent infringement complaint, its second against Apple, was filed in mid-August. The company had accused Apple of infringing seven patents of Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility and asked the ITC to ban Apple products, including all Macs, iPads and most iPhones.
In late September, the ITC said it would formally investigate Motorola Mobility's complaints against Apple. Therefore, the company's decision to withdraw the complaint has come as a surprise.
In a filing with the ITC, Motorola Mobility said it was moving to terminate all claims in the investigation without prejudice based on its withdrawal of the complaint, with Motorola and Apple each bearing their own costs and attorneys' fees.
"There are no agreements between Motorola and Apple, written or oral, express or implied, concerning the subject matter of this investigation. Respondent Apple Inc. and the Office of Unfair Import Investigations Staff Attorney have confirmed that they do not oppose this motion," Motorola Mobility said.
Media reports had earlier said that Google and Apple were in secret settlement talks. Motorola Mobility had earlier filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2010. The lawsuit is still active.
Google, the provider of mobile Android software, bought Motorola Mobility in May this year for about $12.5 billion, adding to it a trove of more than 17,000 patents. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Google's move to hardware market and step up its competition with Apple.
Google's acquisition of Motorola is also expected to help it create better Android devices. While Google's Android mobile operating system has grabbed a discernible share of the smartphone market, tablets based on its software are yet to unsettle iPad's dominant position that has a near two-third market share.
Apple has been waging patent disputes with major smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF), HTC and Motorola Mobility.
On August 24, a U.S. jury found Samsung to have violated some of Apple's patents related to mobile devices and awarded $1.05 billion in damages, in perhaps the biggest-ever technology patent trial.
The nine-member jury of a federal court in San Jose, California found Samsung smartphones and devices infringed upon six of seven Apple patents, with three of them pertaining to touch-screen features. The jury also did not find Apple devices to have violated any of Samsung patents under scrutiny in the trial.
GOOG closed Tuesday's trading at $756.99, down $4.79 or 0.63 percent on a volume of 2.79 million shares.
AAPL closed trading at $661.31, up $1.92 or 0.29 percent on a volume of 22.43 million shares.
