The European Commission, in a preliminary ruling, calls Motorola’s enforcement of an injunction against Apple via mobile standard essential patents “abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.”
The EU’s ruling made on Monday could set the stage for antitrust charges to be filed against Google, according to The New York Times. Motorola had initially sought a legal injunction against Apple’s iPhone over a standard-essential patent related to GSM technology.
Motorola had committed the patent at first to be subject to Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory licensing, (FRAND). Under FRAND, the company must offer a licensing agreement to competitors asking for it.
Apple has argued that Motorola’s injunction efforts were leveraging the very patents it was obligated to license to others. Microsoft joined rival Apple in the case against Motorola.
On Monday, the European Union’s executive body declared Motorola’s injunction was “an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by E.U. antitrust rules.”
“I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice,” Joaquin Almunia, the E.U. competition commissioner, said in a statement on the matter on Monday.
The Commission will not make a final decision in the matter, the investigation of which was originally opened in April of 2012, until both parties have had an opportunity to enter their defense. It could then possibly “issue a decision prohibiting the conduct and impose a fine of up to 10% of a company’s annual worldwide turnover.”
