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Apple Sues Motorola for Violating Smartphone Patents
By SHAYNDI RAICE

Apple Inc. has sued Motorola Inc. alleging the company's smartphone lineup infringes on the iPhone maker's intellectual property.

Apple's lawsuit, which was filed yesterday in U.S. district court in Wisconsin, comes after Motorola sued Apple earlier this month for patent infringement.

The complaint is the latest development in a long-running series of disputes involving handset makers in the fiercely competitive smartphone business.

In the complaint, Apple alleges that Motorola smartphones including those in its Droid lineup violate three Apple patents. Apple is requesting that a judge award damages and attorney's fees and that the courts stop Motorola from selling the products.

The suit was reported earlier by the blog, Patently Apple.

In a statement, Motorola said it has not yet received a copy of the complaint. The company said, however, that "Motorola has a leading intellectual property portfolio, one of the strongest in the industry, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter. We are confident in our position and will pursue our litigation to halt Apple's continued infringement."

An Apple spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this year, Apple filed a patent-infringement suit against HTC Corp., which like Motorola makes phones using Google Inc.'s Android software. Earlier this month, Microsoft Corp. sued Motorola over phone patents.



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