Motorola Offers a Settlement Proposal to Apple

After Apple managed to get Motorola’s “permanent injunction” suspended, a new and interesting twist has occurred in the patent dispute between Apple and Motorola. Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents is reporting that Motorola has offered to end the patent disagreement and license its wireless patents to Apple in exchange for 2.25 percent of Apple’s sales. It is being assumed that the 2.25 percent that Motorola is asking for is from the sales of devices that contain a 3G antenna. Folks, that is an extremely large number. Let me provide you with a quick breakdown: Approximate revenue from iPhone sales since 2007 – $93 billion; Motorola’s cut – $2.1 billion.  That doesn’t include iPad sales, which is also part of the demand.  Mueller finds the 2.25 percent shakedown “excessive.” In an effort to prove that Motorola’s settlement demand is a tad bit excessive, Apple has filed motions to obtain information from other smartphone vendors – Nokia, HTC, LG, and Sony Ericsson – to find out how much they are paying in royalty fees to Motorola. If it turns out that it is considerably less than what Motorola is demanding from Apple, you can pretty much guess that the judge is not going to be happy.