Apple and Motorola Legal / Patent Spat Tentatively Dismissed

Lawsuits, lawsuits, and a few more suits. That's staying in the news here lately, with loads of major technology companies ratcheting up the ammunition in court cases against one another. Now, however, we're finally getting a breather in one of the more public spats. Motorola and Apple have been at each other for months, even years now, but a U.S. district judge has opted to dismiss a case -- tentatively, at least -- surrounding lawsuits between the two. Naturally, the suits concern patent infringements between Apple and Motorola Mobility, which was recently acquired by Google.

Why did the judge pull the plug for now? He said that "both companies failed to support a case for damages and because imposing any injunctions would have been contrary to the public interest," as reported by The Los Angeles Times. The case was set to start on Monday, the day that Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off, but that's on hold. All of this ties back to 2010, when Apple originally sued Moto for supposedly infringing on four patents; not surprisingly, Motorola counter-sued Apple. He said, she said.


Apple isn't commenting, but we're pretty sure the whole thing being delayed until after WWDC is a plus for the company. Now, if only each outfit would use this cooling-off period to put their differences aside...