14 DAY TRIAL // Motorola has landed in yet another legal spat, one that Fujifilm started over alleged infringement of patents, not that companies sue each other for anything else nowadays.
The patent wars littering the worldwide IT market has brought the web and press to such a state that they can't help but uncover every single courtroom debacle.
The situation is only made more saddening by the fact that very little effort is necessary for it. It is almost impossible to go a day without hearing about yet another ban or infringement claim.
By now, it's obvious that the whole IP protection system is in need of repairs, given that it can be thoroughly misused as a means to kill competition instead of ensuring it.
Until the authorities figure things out, though, patent infringement lawsuits will continue being filed.
The one we will speak of here was started by Fujifilm against Motorola. It alleges that the latter is illegally using four broad patents on phone and camera technologies.
The former even says that it has been trying to convince the latter to sign a licensing deal since April (2012), to no avail. Many of Motorola's devices released before or after that time frame are supposedly key offenders.
“The accused products include at least Motorola’s Droid X , Xyboard 10.1, Xyboard 8.2, Droid 4, Razr , Maxx, Razr, Admiral, Droid Bionic, Atrix 2, Electrify, Droid 3, Photon 4G, Triumph, XPRT, Theory, Droid X2, Xoom, Atrix 4G, Droid 2-Global, Droid Pro, CLIQ, CLIQ XT, and DEFY , mobile phones/tablets,” Fujifilm's complaint reads.
“On information and belief, these mobile phones/tablets have a , monochrome feature wherein captured color images are converted into monochrome images as recited in the [...] patent claims. ”
We have no way of knowing for whom the gavel will strike. We just hope we aren't looking at a patent war the size of Samsung vs. Apple.