Judge dismisses Apple's license suit against Motorola

Earlier this year, Apple filed a complaint against Motorola Mobility's attempts to enforce patents covering essential wireless standards, such as GPRS, 802.11, GSM and UMTS, claiming that the now Google-owned telecom firm is not implementing fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Motorola is requiring that royalty payment should be at 2.25 per cent per device. Apple disagrees that such rate is fair and said it is only willing to pay $1 or less for each device covered.

Hours before the trial was supposed to start, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb dismissed the case on grounds that she did not believe that a court should be tasked to determine the appropriate FRAND rate even to resolve a dispute between competitors.

"Motorola has long offered licensing to our extensive standards-essential patent portfolio at a reasonable and non-discriminatory rate in line with industry standards," a Motorola spokeswoman said. "We remain interested in reaching an agreement with Apple."