Saturday morning I told you that Motorola obtained a decision in Germany by which a court recognizes the fact that Apple has infringed two patents of the Motorola company and that based on this decision a ban on the sale of iDevices in the European state could be imposed. Motorola has not yet shown its intentions to impose this ban, but Apple could obtain a suspension of the initial decision. According to some German lawyers, Apple could obtain this temporary suspension and it would remain active until a retrial of the case by another panel of judges.
The Friday decision will have business impact — in my view, within weeks — if Apple fails to persuade the court to suspend the enforcement of the injunction, but Apple is fairly likely to achieve a temporary suspension until a second, substantive, court decision. That substantive decision can be appealed to a higher regional court and possibly all the way up to the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, and during such an appeals process (which can take years), the appellate courts would again have to decide whether to allow the injunction to be enforced or whether to suspend it until the next ruling.
Basically, those from Apple could save themselves for now, or even for the long term, if they appeal against the decision given on Friday by a German court, but if they don't do this, they may be forced to stop selling iDevices in Germany. Several German lawyers gave their opinion about the victory of Motorola and concluded that sales of iDevices can be blocked even based on Friday's decision, which was obtained by the failure of Apple's lawyers to appear at the court hearings held in that case.
It will be interesting to see how Apple will approach the situation, but theoretically, the company from Cupertino can extend this process for several years without its products being banned on the German market.
