This year, Apple sued the major manufacturers of Android terminals for infringing patents in the terminals they built. Until now, Samsung has been the big loser, being banned from selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia. Well, it seems that Apple would have found its "nose" in Germany where a court in Mannheim is going to ban the sale of Apple products because they infringe two patents owned by Motorola. Moreover, Apple would have to pay damages to the Motorola company for the infringement of these patents, damages that will cover the period 2003-2011.
Apple knows what it's like to win injunctions against rivals. It won four of them against Samsung (two in Germany, one in the Netherlands and most recently one in Australia; all of them preliminary). Now it seems that Apple has just come out on the losing end of a patent infringement lawsuit. I have received a copy of what purports to be a default judgment by the Mannheim Regional Court barring Apple from selling in Germany — the single largest market in Europe – any mobile devices infringing on two Motorola Mobility patents and determining that Apple owes Motorola Mobility damages for past infringement since April 19, 2003.
This is the first time that Apple products could be banned from sale in a country, but for now the above information was provided based on an information that should contain a possible decision to block the sale of iDevices by a German judge . At the moment, Apple can sell iDevices in Germany even though it was established that it violated Motorola's patents, but in the next period the decision to ban the sale of iDevices could be taken by the court that decided that the patents were violated. Motorola issued the following press statement:
As media and mobility continue to converge, Motorola Mobility's patented technologies are increasingly important for innovation within the wireless and communications industries, for which Motorola Mobility has developed an industry leading intellectual property portfolio. We will continue to assert ourselves in the protection of these assets, while also ensuring that our technologies are widely available to end-users. We hope that we are able to resolve this matter, so we can focus on creating great innovations that benefit the industry.
And the answer from Apple:
This is a procedural issue that has nothing to do with the merits of the case. This does not affect our ability to sell products or do business in Germany at this time.
Basically, Apple can now sell iDevices in Germany, but it is not known what will happen in the next period. Motorola Mobility was acquired by Google a few weeks ago and it is already starting to win lawsuits against the Apple company. The invention patents infringed by the company from Cupertino are related to dedicated technologies radios si pagers. Do you know the interesting part? Motorola has the same patents registered in the USA, so theoretically it can defend them anywhere in the world.
Now Apple will have to reach an agreement with Motorola/Google so that its iDevices will continue to be available on the biggest market in Europe.
