Apple has complained to the European
Commission that Motorola is violating the FRAND (fair, reasonable and
non-discriminatory) terms around its standard-essential wireless
patents, according to AppleInsider.
AppleInsider reports:
Apple's
complaint was submitted to the Competition Directorate-General and asked
for the commission to intervene "with respect to standards-essential
patents" (SEPs). The iPhone maker alleges that Motorola has breached its
Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory commitments for its SEPs.
FRAND
commitments are vital to the establishing of industry standards,
especially within the wireless industry. Companies are often required to
agree to license their patents on FRAND terms to competitors in order
before submitting their intellectual property to standard-setting
organizations. Court filings show that Motorola has offered Apple a
patent license, but Apple believes the 2.25 percent royalty rate that
its rival is seeking is unfair, unreasonable and discriminatory.
As we had reported earlier, Motorola is demanding 2.25% of Apple's iPhone sales up to and including the iPhone 4.
As revenue from those iPhone sales totaled $92.64 billion, it means
that Motorola is demanding $2.08 billion for its 3G patent, which
industry experts have felt is too much.
Apple had filed a series of discovery
motions aimed at finding out how much Motorola charged Nokia, HTC, LG
and Ericsson for the same technology. Motorola and now Google could get
into serious trouble if Apple can prove that Motorola is demanding more
money from them than its competitors.
According to Bloomberg, Motorola had denied the charge:
“MMI has a
long-standing practice of licensing our patents on fair, reasonable and
non-discriminatory terms and we offered those to Apple.”
Apple had to briefly remove all their 3G iOS devices except iPhone 4S from the German online store, after Motorola had won a preliminary injunction against Apple for infringing on its standard-essential wireless patents.
With this move, Apple has opened up the regulatory channel to fight the patent war against Motorola.
[source AppleInsider]
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