Motorola Mobility's smartphones are not in violation of any Apple patents included in a recent suit, according to an initial decision issued today by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) with the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC).
The ITC will issue a final decision on the matter in March.
Apple filed its initial complaint with the ITC back in October of 2010, claiming that Motorola Mobility's smartphones were in violation of three patents. The patents relate to text input and the loading of applications on mobile devices.
"We are pleased with today's favorable outcome for Motorola Mobility," said Scott Offer, senior vice president and general counsel of Motorola Mobility, in a statement. "Motorola Mobility has worked hard over the years to develop technology and build an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio. We are proud to leverage this broad and deep portfolio to create differentiated innovations that enhance the user experience."
Google is still waiting on approval of its plan to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The company has been forthright about its impetus for the purchase, saying Motorola Mobility's patent portfolio will help Google protect the Android operating system from future patent litigation.
In another matter, the USITC said on Friday that it has unanimously voted to investigate a whole slew of mobile OEMs in connection with a patent complaint filed by Digitude Innovations.
Motorola Mobility, along with Research In Motion (RIM), HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Amazon, Pantech and Nokia, are all included in Digitude's filing with the commission.