Apple v. Motorola patent case gets tossed by Wisconsin judge

A highly anticipated patent infringement case between Apple and Motorola Mobility was dismissed by a Wisconsin district court Monday, hours before the trial was due to begin.

The two companies were arguing over license rates for patents owned by Motorola that cover parts of the wireless UMTS, GPRS, GSM and 802.11 standards. The patents are vital parts of the technologies and so Motorola Mobility is required to license them to competitors on “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms,” often referred to by the acronym FRAND.

At issue was where the boundary lay between reasonable and unreasonable terms.

Last week Apple told the court it would pay up to $1 per device for a license to Motorola patents covering cellular and Wi-Fi technologies. Motorola Mobility was arguing for a royalty payment of 2.25 percent on each device.

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