This patent riff-raff began in 2012, when Fujifilm originally sued Motorola for $40 million. Fujifilm argued that Motorola infringed on four of its patents, three of which dealt with digital camera functions. Unfortunately for Fujifilm, the San Francisco jury concluded that Motorola only infringed on one of the four patents: a patent that deals with converting color images to monochrome.
Motorola wanted to cancel all of the four patents Fujifilm brought forth, arguing they were either relatively old or didn’t stand out when compared to similarly patented inventions. The jury only saw eye to eye with Motorola on three of the four patents and decided that Motorola did infringe on the fourth patent. The end result is that Motorola was ordered to pay Fujifilm significantly less than what Fujifilm originally sought.
Regardless, it looks like Motorola doesn’t want to be on the hook for that fourth patent. “We are pleased with the verdict related to three out of the four patents and are evaluating our options on the one patent on which we did not prevail,” said Motorola spokesperson William Moss in an email sent to Reuters.
Motorola’s response isn’t surprising and could indicate that the company is willing to draw this patent battle out. Given its four-year patent battle with Apple and year-long dispute with Microsoft, Motorola seems to be very familiar with patent disputes. Motorola ended its patent trial with Apple by agreeing with the Cupertino-based company to dismiss all patent litigation. Meanwhile, its patent dispute with Microsoft was tossed out by the International Trade Commission (ITC).
