Motorola has today won a patent battle which forces Apple to remove all 3G iPads, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4′s from its virtual Apple store shelves in Germany.
This follows on from a previous ruling in Motorolas favour at the end of last year. The licenses at issue are supposedly FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory patents which are considered to be industry standards. The court order is directed at Apple Sales International in Ireland, which operates the online store of Apple in Europe.
The Mannheim Regional Court found Apple infringed a patent used to synchronise e-mail accounts. The ruling also allows Motorola Mobility to ask Apple for information about past sales and holds Apple liable for damages. Presiding Judge Andreas Voss said in delivering the verdict The court has come to the conclusion that the wording of the patent does cover functioning that were at issue here, said Voss, Apple wasnt able to convince the court that it isnt infringing.
The German courts have also banned a number of Samsung products, including the first Galaxy Tab, based on previous Apple patent complaints. Soon the only tablet available in Germany will be the Motorola XOOMs.
Apples current flagship device, the iPhone 4, remains on sale at the German Online Apple Store. It isnt certain as to why the 4 doesnt fall into Motorolas complaint, one possible excuse is that the device simply could be too new and wasnt included as part of the original complaint. Also the iPhone 4 and the CMDA versions of the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 use Qualcomm chips whilst the banned devices all feature Infineon basebands, so this could also be a possible reason.
In an emailed statement from Alan Hely, Apples company spokesman, to BusinessWeek he said Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and were appealing the courts decision, and Apple also went on to tell Paid Content While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apples online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorized reseller. Apple is appealing this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.
This follows on from a previous ruling in Motorolas favour at the end of last year. The licenses at issue are supposedly FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory patents which are considered to be industry standards. The court order is directed at Apple Sales International in Ireland, which operates the online store of Apple in Europe.
The Mannheim Regional Court found Apple infringed a patent used to synchronise e-mail accounts. The ruling also allows Motorola Mobility to ask Apple for information about past sales and holds Apple liable for damages. Presiding Judge Andreas Voss said in delivering the verdict The court has come to the conclusion that the wording of the patent does cover functioning that were at issue here, said Voss, Apple wasnt able to convince the court that it isnt infringing.
The German courts have also banned a number of Samsung products, including the first Galaxy Tab, based on previous Apple patent complaints. Soon the only tablet available in Germany will be the Motorola XOOMs.
Apples current flagship device, the iPhone 4
In an emailed statement from Alan Hely, Apples company spokesman, to BusinessWeek he said Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and were appealing the courts decision, and Apple also went on to tell Paid Content While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apples online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorized reseller. Apple is appealing this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.
