Motorola Mobility sued Apple in a Florida court on Wednesday for violating 6 wireless technology patents found in the iPhone 4S and iCloud. The patents in question relate to antenna, software, data filtering, and messaging technology.

Google recently acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion and is in the process of merging with the company. While Google is not directly involved with this specific case, Motorola’s lawsuit can definitely be seen as another attempt to protect patent ammunition for the ongoing legal war between the top smartphone manufacturers. In fact, this is the closest Apple and Google have ever come to fighting in the courtroom.

Reuters reports:

Motorola said the patents cited in the latest lawsuit are the same ones it is fighting to protect in a different Florida lawsuit. This complaint is against two of Apple’s latest products, the iPhone 4S and Apple’s iCloud remote storage service for music and other media, Motorola said.

Google had to sign off on this lawsuit, but Motorola Mobility is not owned by Google yet. This lawsuit shouldn’t be interpreted as Google indirectly suing Apple. If anything, Google is letting Motorola protect its intellectual property because those patents will one day belong to Google. The search and ad giant’s business model isn’t hurt by the lawsuit, and Motorola gets to stand up for itself in court.

Why not put some chinks in Apple’s armor before you have to clean the sword and claim it as your own.

(image via TheTechJournal)