Apple received a huge blow when a judge threw out it’s smartphone case against Google.
June 24, 2012- In Chicago, a federal judge has thrown the smartphone patent case that Apple brought against Motorola Mobility out of court and said the suit could never be filed again. Judge Richard Posner, late on Friday, dismissed the case writing his opinion that neither Apple nor Motorola Mobility proved that any damages were caused by the opposing party. His ruling was with prejudice meaning both sides cannot reopen the case again to prove any damages.
The ruling is a blow to tech giant Apple, which had hoped to gain from the suit to have an upper hand in the competitive mobile device market. Judicial combat has become common for the two companies over patents for smartphones since early 2010. Motorola Mobility, now a part of Google, sued Apple at that time, and then Apple returned the favor just a month later with a counter suit.
In pretrial hearings, Judge Posner threw most of the patent claims by Motorola out and some of those of Apple. Earlier this month, Posner canceled a complete trial, saying no damages could be proven by either party. Last week, the judge reversed his own decision and allowed the two companies to submit legal arguments that were sealed. Nevertheless, he found neither of the companies claims were convincing.
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