Motorola Challenges Judge Posner's Implied "No Injunctions for FRAND" Ruling ~pj

Motorola has now filed its response to Apple's appeal of Judge Richard Posner's decision to toss out Apple's claims against Motorola (and vice versa), and it adds its own cross appeal [PDF] on the vice versa part -- especially challenging the implication of Judge Posner's ruling that there can be no injunctive relief for FRAND patent owners ever, as a categorical rule.

A blanket denial of the right to seek injunctive relief, Motorola argues, violates patent law, contradicts eBay v. MercExchange [PDF], where the US Supreme Court held that it was error to come up with a categorical rule that "injunctive relief could not issue in a broad swath of cases", and violates the original expectations of donors of technology to standards bodies. In fact, it says any such rule would violate the US Constitution, which provides that Congress shall have power to secure exclusive rights for inventors, and in the Patent Act Congress came up with, it says every grant to a patentee includes the right to exclude others. Motorola asserts that it has never waived its rights to injunctive relief and states that there is no language in its ETSI agreements requiring it to do so. Motorola argues that there should continue to be a case-by-case analysis under eBay, with judges having discretion to make such decisions based on the particular facts of each case.

Fair warning, though: the PDF is 737 pages. The actual brief is one-tenth that, 73 pages, so I've done that part of it for you as text. The rest is a collection of patents at issue, judge's orders in this case, and one from a related Apple v. Motorola litigation in Wisconsin, which is where this case began, before being transferred to Illinois and Judge Posner.