It appears that Apple isn’t too sure who should be suing them when it comes to Motorola due to Google acquiring Motorola Mobility, and as a result of Apple confusion Apple has filed to have two Motorola patent infringement lawsuits temporarily halted claiming that Motorola no longer has any standing.

According to an article over on Phone Arena by way of FossPatents, under the Google, Motorola merger agreement Motorola is “severely restricted in its ability to enforce its patents and negotiate settlements,” and thus Apple lawyers claim Motorola has no right to sue.

Apple’s legal team also say, “Apple should not have to face the threat of an injunction based on the claims of a party that now has no standing to bring those claims. Apple will be expending enormous resources litigating claims against a party that does not have standing.”

The first case under dispute should begin in April 2012, however by that time it will still be unclear as to whether the acquisition of Motorola by Google will have passed regulatory scrutiny. It would seem that Apple’s requests are a bit of a long shot but nevertheless worth trying and claim…

“To further its pending acquisition by Google, Motorola has surrendered critical rights in the patents-in-suit, such that Motorola no longer has prudential standing to pursue this action. According to the publicly-filed Merger Agreement, Motorola has ceded control of the most basic rights regarding the patents-in-suit. Absent Google’s consent, Motorola cannot: (1) sue for infringement of its patents in any new action; (2) settle pending litigation (including this case) that would require a license to any of its patents; (3) license or sublicense its patents except in limited circumstances relating to the sale of Motorola’s products; (4) assign its rights in its patents; and/or (5) grant a covenant not to sue for infringement of its patents.”

If Apple is successful in gaining a suspension of the Motorola lawsuits, and since Google is using Motorola patent to help its Android partners in Apple brought lawsuits, Apple could turn their legal attention directly towards Google and Android rather than Android smartphone makers.

Which would mean of course a rather large patent battle taking place between the two giants of the mobile arena, with an outcome that no one could predict, other than such a battle would obviously mean in the end the smartphone arena as a whole would eventually suffer in one way or another.