Apple and Motorola have agreed to drop a combined 14 patents from a Florida case set to go to trial in 2014. Monday’s filing drops the total of claims in the suit down to 8.
The decision to pare down the Miami trial’s assertions leaves each company with four patents in play, down from a high of 24 patents and hundreds of claims and counterclaims, reports FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller.
Monday’s stipulation, which has not yet been accepted by the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, sees Motorola dropping 8 patents, and Apple losing 6. The iPhone maker had dropped two patents prior to the joint order filing.
Presiding Judge Robert N. Scola had pushed the trial schedule back four months due to the parties’ inability to come to an agreement on how to narrow the scope of the case without input from the court. The jurist had accused both parties of using the court system as a “business strategy” rather than a means to settle their disputes.
Mueller points out that the companies are focusing on patents with strategic value, not necessarily those which may yield high damages.
Joint Stipulation and Order of Partial Dismissal
