Judge Posner Grants Motorola's Summary Judgment Motion Of Non-Infringement For Android: Apple V. Motorola

In Apple's patent infringement action against Motorola, Apple claimed that certain Motorola devices running the Android operating system infringe two of its network component patents. Motorola moved for summary judgment.

According to the district court, "Claim 1 of the '486 patent describes 'replaceable...component's]' in a layered computing system. (The '852 patent incorporates the replaceable component system of '486 by reference at 13:22-44, and my interpretation of the terms applies equally to both patents' claims.) The use of replaceable components promotes program flexibility and facilitates customization because replaceability enables the user to alter functionality customization because replaceability enables the user to alter functionality within a given program. The prior art was 'application-based,' which meant that users had to accept an application's functionality as is or not use it at all."

Apple asserted that Java objects in the Android Runtime, which facilitates communication between the process and the applications, are infringing "replaceable components." Motorola contended that the phrase "replaceable components" should mean components that are replaceable by Android end-users and, therefore, the Java objects are irreplaceable under that construction.

Apple asserted that an Android developer is a user, citing the Android developers' guide as an instruction manual for replacing components of the Android system. Apple also asserted that even if "user" is confined to consumers there are some consumers who are skilled in Android programming and will customize the phones' functionality.

The district court disagreed, finding that the modification was directed toward Android applications not the Runtime environment. "But the developers' guide is geared towards modification of Android applications, not the Android Runtime environment. It states that 'Android offers developers the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications,' and that the Android Runtime libraries provides the 'functionality available in the core libraries of the Java programming language' to facilitate application development. 'What is Android?' http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html (visited Jan. 24...