The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down a ruling in favor of Apple on Wednesday, reinstating the company’s complaint against Google-owned Motorola Mobility in reference to two patents Apple owns.
The ruling overturns a decision from the U.S. International Trade Commission from March 2012, when the commission dismissed Apple’s complaint against Motorola. Apple appealed that ruling, and with Wednesday’s decision, the case will proceed, as reported by Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents.
Apple’s original filing concerned three patents, the appeals court reversed the ITC’s decision on two of the patents in question:
- U.S. Patent No. 7,663,607: “Multipoint touchscreen”
- U.S. Patent No. 7,812,828: “Ellipse fitting for multi-touch surfaces”
“Today’s remand decision gives Apple another opportunity to win a U.S. import ban against the Google subsidiary’s Android-based devices, which would have the Android ecosystem at large concerned,” Mueller said.
The appeal that was granted does, however, remove one of the patents from the case: U.S. Patent No. 5,379,430, entitled “Object-oriented system locator system.” Apple did not pursue its claims on that patent in the appeal.
