Holder of a Russian Patent Resumes Patent Spat With Motorola
Satellite navigation technology firm RussGPS said Tuesday it was pursuing the payment of fees from a number of mobile phone operators that it claimed were exploiting technology it patented.
RussGPS caused a furor last year when it accused Motorola of using its technology in the production of some of its mobile handsets, thereby infringing its Russian patents, which it said had a combined value of $67 million.
Panov said at a news conference Tuesday that he still wanted Motorola to sign a license agreement committing it to pay for shipping some of its latest models to Russia.
“We are open to discussion,” Panov said. “We are already in talks with some commercial entities.”
Motorola, the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer last year sued for defamation at the Moscow Arbitration Court, seeking $18 million in damages. The case was thrown out of court in September, and a subsequent appeal was decided against Motorola two months later.
Panov said RussGPS patented the fingerprint recognition function currently available on the Pantech PG-6200 Black Panther model, as well as other devices used by other companies.
RussGPS also maintained Tuesday that seven Motorola cell phone models violated its Russian patents, adding that the company was willing to resort to legal measures if negotiations fail.
Motorola said Tuesday, however, that the company regarded the issue as closed.
“We have done expert assessments with two independent expert groups — one American and one Russian — and the results clearly show that our handsets contains nothing from RussGPS technology,” Motorola PR Manager Kirill Lubnin said in a telephone interview.
“In this environment, if you have a patent through whatever means, you can sue for civil or criminal damages, depending on your lawyer’s whims and assessment of the damages inflicted by patent-violator,” Natalya Stepanova, a patent law expert at Gorodissky & Partners, said in a telephone interview.
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