Apple-Motorola Suit Dismissed: Judge is Not Impressed (AAPL, GOOG, ORCL)

US District Court Judge Richard Posner has decided, for the moment, to dismiss two-year old patent litigation involving Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Motorola Mobility, now merged with Google Inc.(NASDAQ: GOOG). The trial, scheduled to begin Monday, has been cancelled by Posner.

In his tentative dismissal, the judge said that neither side could show a “right of relief” for the alleged violations, which fails to demonstrate a case for damages. Posner said he would file a longer opinion within a week and noted that he may change his mind.

This is the second time in a the past two weeks that Google has essentially won a patent dispute. A patent suit brought against the company by Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) has been narrowed to final damage determination stage that is likely to amount to a token payment from Google to Oracle for a patent violation related to the Java programming language.

Paul Ausick