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The International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate both Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Nokia's (NYSE: NOK) claims that each has infringed the other's patents.
The ITC is also investigating a complaint filed by Motorola (NYSE: MMI) that Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) has infringed on its patents.
As is usually the case when the ITC is asked to step into a dispute, its decisions are expected to be swift, and the potential penalties -- bans or seizures of imports -- severe.
Despite the high economic stakes involved, the ITC is just a way station in the larger battle among these tech titans.
Tit for Tat
The Apple-Nokia dispute began last October, when Nokia filed a patent-infringement claim against Apple in the U.S. District Court of Delaware. In December, Apple brought a countersuit in the same jurisdiction.
Nokia alleged that the iPhone infringed 10 of its mobile technology patents covering wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption.
Apple countered that that Nokia infringed on 13 of its patents touching upon real-time signal processing, teleconferencing and power conservation.
For their part, Motorola and RIM had a long standing license agreement in place throughout the first half of the 2000s. However they were unable to reach an agreement on terms when the license was up and sought redress in the courts.
In January, Motorola filed a complaint with the ITC, claiming that the Pearl, Curve, Bold, Storm and Tour devices were infringing on its patents.
The Power of Exclusion
One reason companies look to the ITC to resolve their patent disputes is that it can provide relief in the form of an exclusion order, said Oblon, Spivak partner Thomas Fisher, who cochairs the firm's ITC litigation practice group.
"An exclusion order gives injunctive-type relief under which products found to infringe a valid U.S. intellectual property right are barred from importation into the United States," he told MacNewsWorld.
The other reason firms are increasingly turning to the ITC is that it is fast.
"ITC investigations are typically concluded in under 18 months from the time the complaint is filed," noted Fisher.
In fact, the ITC is expected to render its view on the Motorola complaint shortly, Raymond Van Dyke, a partner with Merchant & Gould, told MacNewsWorld.
"337 actions," as the ITC's orders are called, " are a very potent tool in the arsenal of negotiation," said Van Dyke, "and Motorola clearly means business by filing this complaint. With this escalation in the ongoing patent battles, expect a settlement or perhaps a 337 filed by RIM."
