A Chicago judge was ready to throw out Apple and Motorola's patent complaints against one another, but upon deliberation, he has decided to provide a hearing for both parties on June 20. Judge Posner warned that both should be willing to accept the possibility that they may just get royalties rather than sales bans. Judge Posner also told Motorola that "it should be prepared to address the bearing of FRAND on the injunction analysis", which basically means that Motorola will have a hard time imposing an injunction based on 3G-essential patents, since the ITC would rather those patents be licensed on a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory basis.
It sounds like the court is already short on patience, so both sides will have to be careful about being overly-technical or fickle about their complaints. At best, I think either side might see a few royalties, but it seems a lot more likely that a few patent infringements will be found on either side, and everything will eventually boil down to some kind of cross-licensing deal. Or the judge will just throw the case out again altogether. Anyone placing bets?
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Source: FOSS Patents
