Motorola seeks 2.25% of Apple iPhone sales for use of patents

A legal brief written by Apple's attorneys in Germany, trying to get Motorola Mobility to show proof of a cross-licensing agreement between it and Qualcomm, contains some interesting information according to FOSS Patents. In the brief, Apple claims that Motorola is seeking a royalty fee of 2.25% of Apple iPhone sales in return for use of Motorola Mobility's standard-essential patents. The context of the offer, though, is about just one patent which is the one that forced Apple to remove certain products from its German online store.

Apple wants to show the court by using the Qualcomm-Motorola agreement that the latter's request is too high. Additionally, Apple's lawyers in Germany have started asking the court to grant Discovery motions to allow it to get information from other manufacturers proving the unFRANDness of Motorola Mobility's royalty demand. So far, motions were granted for Apple to contact LG, HTC, Nokia and Ericsson and seeks any information about deals or licensing agreements that each entered into relating to Intellectual Property from Motorola Mobility.

If Motorola Mobility were to get what it is asking for, that would work out to about $15 for each 16GB Apple iPhone 4S sold, $17 for each 32GB version and $21 for each 64GB variant, based on the unsubsidized price of the models. Considering that 93 million Apple iPhones were sold last year (although not all of those were the iPhone 4S) and it would be quite an impressive payday for Motorola Mobility. Which is why Apple's attorneys are working so hard to prove the unreasonableness of Motorola Mobility's demand.

source: FOSS Patents