Fujifilm files patent lawsuit against Motorola Mobility

It’s not only RIM (Research In Motion) finding itself in legal hot water, as Google-owned Motorola Mobility is being sued by Fujifilm over alleged patent violations.

The Japanese photography and imaging firm filed a patent lawsuit with the US District Court for the Northern District of California against the US smartphone and tablet maker. Fujifilm alleges that the Android OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has infringed upon four of its patents.

These patents deal mostly with camera technologies, with the first patent (US Patent No. 6 144 763 or simply the ’763 patent), focusing on “a method and apparatus for the compression coding of image data representative of a colour image”, whilst US Patent No. 5 734 427 (the ’427 patent),revolves around a “high resolution electronic still camera with an electronic viewfinder for displaying a reduced image”.

The other two patents are (US Patent No. 6 915 119 or the ’119 patent), which concerns a method for telephone and data transmitting and US Patent No. 7 327 886 (the ’886 patent) dealing with a photographing apparatus, method and program.

Fujifilm stated that a number of Motorola’s tablets and smartphones infringed upon these patents including the Razr Maxx, Razr, Motorola Atrix 2, Xoom, Atrix 4G, and Defy. The company is seeking to “recover damages adequate to compensate Fujifilm for Motorola’s infringing activities in an amount to be determined at trial, but in no event less than a reasonable royalty, together with interest and costs.”

In related news, the United Nations’ specialised agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), is setting up high level talks in order to address rampant patent litigation amongst tech firms.

This organisation will host a roundtable discussion between standards organisations, key industry players as well as government officials at the ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 10 October 2012.