Upon Motorola’s request, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) is to take a look into the possibility of a range of Apple products infringing upon patents. Motorola had earlier requested for an inquiry into this matter last month.
The ITC has now decided to investigate into the matter and check on products manufactured by Apple such as the iPhone, the iPad, iPod and Macs in order to clarify certain claims that Motorola has made in a motion they filed last month. The ITC has been asked to check if the above mentioned products of Apple have violated the section 377 mentioned in the Tariff Act of 1930, thus infringing upon patents supposedly owned by Motorola. If the claims are found to be true, that is, if the ITC determines that the devices have indeed infringed upon the said patents, Motorola will then want the ITC to pass cease-and-desist and exclusion orders against these products.
ITC had earlier passed a ruling stating that Apple products had not violated the three patents concerning the 3G technology, as opposed to claims by Motorola. One other patent issue was passed over to Thomas Pender, administrative law judge, in order to investigate if the patent was infringed upon by Apple in the making of their mobile phones. This decision making process is most likely to take a year at least, after which the given judgment will be forwarded to the panel at ITC.
Similarly, this investigation initiated by the ITC upon Motorola’s request will take time before the final results are delivered. The case will first be assigned to one of the administrative law judges at ITC who will be responsible for holding a hearing wherein evidence will be produced. Once the judge takes a stand based on what is presented to him in the hearing, the result will be sent for review to the panel of judges that sit at the ITC. However, this does not ensure in any way that a final decision will be arrived at. On several occasions, it takes more than a few months for the panel to make the final call.
Motorola, after having filed the motion, can only wait for the ITC to investigate into the matter and find substantial evidence against Apple in the case.
