U.S. ITC to investigate Apple devices following complaint by Google’s Motorola Mobility

A release today from the United States International Trade Commission shows that Apple Inc. is likely next up on the patent lawsuit stand. The release, which doesn’t go into detail about the complaint on behalf of Motorola Mobility, states simply that there will be “an investigation of certain wireless communication devices, portable music and data processing devices, computers, and components thereof.”

The investigation is being brought up to see whether Motorola can ban the import of Apple’s devices in relation to Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. As FOSS Patents point out, the decision from the ITC to proceed with the investigation should be no surprise as every recent complaint has culminated in an investigation as well. An earlier post from FOSS details the patents in question:

• U.S. Patent No. 5,883,580 on “geographic-temporal significant messaging”
• U.S. Patent No. 5,922,047 on an “apparatus, method and system for multimedia control and communication”
• U.S. Patent No. 6,425,002 on an “apparatus and method for handling dispatching messages for various applications of a communication device”
• U.S. Patent No, 6,493,673 on a “markup language for interactive services and methods thereof”
• U.S. Patent No. 6,983,370 on a “system for providing continuity between messaging clients and method therefor”
• U.S. Patent No. 7,007,064 on a “method and apparatus for obtaining and managing wirelessly communicated content”
• U.S. Patent No. 7,383,983 on a “system and method for managing content between devices in various domains”