The plethora of patent suits filed by or against Apple (AAPL) and Android vendors over the past couple of years has driven many judges to angry tirades. Now, U.S. District Judge Robert Scola has joined this elite club by slamming both Apple and Google (GOOG) for allegedly abusing the patent litigation system. Bloomberg reports that Scola issued an order on Wednesday that lambasted the two companies for allegedly having “no interest in efficiently and expeditiously resolving this dispute” and of “using this and similar litigation worldwide as a business strategy that appears to have no end.”
The Florida-based judge was responding to requests from both companies for the court to help simplify a patent case that Bloomberg says involves “more than 180 claims related to 12 patents and disputes over the meaning of more than 100 terms.” Scola was apparently incredulous that the companies would ask for the court’s help to streamline a case that they themselves made needlessly complex.
“Without a hint of irony, the parties now ask the court to mop up a mess they made by holding a hearing to reduce the size and complexity of the case,” he wrote. “The court declines this invitation.”
