During its negotiations late last year, Motorola Mobility attempted to win a wide-reaching patent license from Apple in return for access to Motorola’s SEPs (standards-essential patents). Citing the European Commission’s clearance decision on Google’s proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents reports that the negotiations in question took place in November 2011, and resulted in Apple declining to send a representative who could negotiate a settlement to a December court hearing in Munich.
The portion of the European Commission document in question reads: “For instance, according to Apple, Motorola Mobility has insisted that Apple cross-licenses its full non-SEP portfolio in exchange for Motorola Mobility’s SEPs. Apple also argues that its refusal to accede to this demand led Motorola Mobility to sue Apple in an attempt to exclude Apple’s products from the market.
On the terms of Apple’s own argument, Motorola Mobility’s allegedly anti-competitive behaviour in this regard well precedes the merger at issue in the present decision.” Mueller suggests that Apple’s reluctance to provide access to its full patent portfolio will continue to be the key issue in negotiations between the two sides.
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