Don’t you just detest often silly legal proceedings in the technology business? I’m talking about an endless back and forth between Apple and Motorola over who copied whom, with no clear winner in sight.
Well, Apple’s and Motorola’s past childish behavior in the courtroom has really tested the limits of one judge’s patience, who dismissed a patent infringement trial after hearing each side’s damages arguments.
This was bound to the first major lawsuit between Apple and Motorola following completion of the latter’s acquisition by search giant Google…
Deciding enough is enough, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner today threw the Apple-Motorola lawsuit out of the window.
He apparently told the two parties:
You have to prove injury. I’m sorry that it seems to be petering out like this.
Patent expert Florian Müeller warned of such an outcome last week.
And today, Müeller explained in a post on his FOSS Patents blog that even though the jury trial in Chicago is now canceled, the lawsuit isn’t over yet as jury is needed for damages, not an injunction.
This particular judge can at times be nitpicking, but what do you call then an idiotic legal mess Apple and Motorola have gotten themselves into, suing each other over a few patents?
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, writing for Fortune, explains the judge’s rationale:
First he characterized a Motorola claim as “ridiculous.” Then he called one of Apple’s “frivolous” and “untimely,” warning Cupertino’s lawyers that he’d had his fill of such things.
Later he told both sides to rewrite their briefs in language a layperson could understand, and forbade Apple from trying to turn the case into a “popularity contest.”
Wanna hear the really funny bit?
Posner scrapped the case four days before it was scheduled to start, says Bloomberg.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of both reporting on and reading about these pointless lawsuits.
For chrissake, can’t you just settle and make love or something?