Motorola Wins Injunction vs Apple in Germany; Bumps iPad2 3G & 3 iPhones Off Website

[dgstorm]

This is a surprising victory from out of left field. Motorola just won a fairly major victory against Apple in the patent wars drama. A Mannheim Regional Court in Germany just saddled Apple with a permanent injunction against the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and the iPad 2 3G. Here's a quote from the TechCrunch article with some more details,

According to a court in Germany, all four of them are infringing on Motorola patents related to embedded 3G/UMTS wireless technology, FRAND standards essential patents to be specific. This means that the technology within the patents is now a standard across the industry, and the company that owns said technology is required to license it to competitors under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.

Keep something in mind about this story... this particular injunction only stops Apple from selling these products online in Germany, but local retailers can continue to sell them. However, it must really get Apple's goat that several of their devices now have to be removed from their own website in Germany. In case you were wondering, the reason the iPhone 4S isn't on this list, is likely because it uses a Qualcomm 3G/UMTS chip instead of the Infineon/Intel chip in the other devices. The prevailing theory is that Motorola and Qualcomm probably already have a licensing deal which would automatically cover Apple by extension.

Apparently, this wasn't the only victory scored by Motorola either. Motorola won another permanent injunction versus Apple’s iCloud push email feature. Now, Apple customers in Germany will need to revert back to the old method of push email, instead of using iCloud.

It would appear that Apple's constant lawsuits against other manufacturers has drawn out quite a bit of ire, and is beginning to backfire on them.

Updated: It looks like the injunction has already been lifted by the German court. Apparently, Motorola isn't licensing the tech to Apple "on reasonable terms," which they are required to do.

Source: TechCrunch

 

[droidxd00d]

Good. Maybe that will shut them up for a while. +1 for moto.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Byakushiki]

*whew*
Moto all of a sudden is kicking apple's rear. Well, it had to happen eventually. Taste of their own medicine indeed.

Breakfast beats worrying.

 

[xeene]

injunction has already been lifted Online iPad, iPhone sales to resume in Germany - MarketWatch

 

[czerdrill]

These are frand patents. Moto has to license them and as already mentioned the injunction has already been lifted until further notice.