iCaramba! Motorola sues Apple over iPhone/iPad patent infringements

Motorola-Apple-PatentNowadays, it seems tech companies spend more time in court than they do in the laboratory. This year’s action got off to a silly start when a patent troll claimed he was entitled to 84% of Facebook. Not long after this, Oracle sued Google’s Android OS for intellectual property infringement, then Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen topped ‘em all by suing every company that had ever used electricity to power its products.

Motorola was sued just last week for allegedly infringing on patents held by Microsoft. Perhaps worried that there might not be any intellectual property courthouses left if they waited much longer, Motorola has decided to sue Apple over its iPads and iPhones allegedly infringing on 18 of Motorola’s antenna design and wireless technology patents.

On a less litigious note, Android-based phones may soon be able to utilize PayPal to purchase mobile apps. A deal between Google and PayPal will supposedly be announced later this month at the PayPal Developers Conference in San Francisco. The move would help level the playing field between Google’s app store and the easy-to-use Apple version, and give Google a better shot at living up to those predictions that it will become the #2 mobile OS by year’s end.