Apple Cleared Of Infringing Two Google Patents By ITC

Apple didn’t infringe two patents owned by Google’s Motorola Mobility unit for wireless technologies used throughout the electronics industry, a U.S. trade agency said in a decision that reduces the likelihood of an import ban on the iPhone.

The U.S. International Trade Commission didn’t completely resolve the companies’ dispute, ordering a trade judge to reconsider Motorola Mobility’s claim that Apple violated another patent. The judge had previously found no violation of that patent, which applies to a sensor used to determine the proximity of a person’s head to the phone so it doesn’t accidentally hang up. The commission could have stopped shipments of the iPhone and iPad at the border had it upheld Judge Thomas Pender’s earlier finding that Apple infringed a patent for 3G technology. That determination had prompted criticism that the agency shouldn’t ban imports of products that infringe patents related to technological standards used by an entire industry. The sensor patent that’s still in dispute is for a feature that isn’t related to industry-wide specifications and, thus, could be easier to work around.