Germany is no stranger to patent-related legal action, and has served up some pretty major rulings in the seemingly never-ending saga.
This time around it’s Apple on the receiving end, with Mannheim Regional Court issuing a permanent injunction against Team Cupertino following a complaint from Motorola.
The patent in question pertains to a "multiple pager status synchronization system and method," and Motorola claims that Apple’s iCloud-enabled iDevices are guilty of infringing on it. Mannheim Regional Court agrees.
Apple has reportedly pulled the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (but not the iPhone 4S) and 3G iPad 2 from its online store in Germany, however that’s said to be as a result of an earlier injunction - served in December.
With regards to the latest ruling, Team Cook says: "Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we're appealing the courts decision.”
As for the disappearing iDevices, a statement reads: "While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apple's online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorised 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.”
Undoubtedly we’ll hear more on this in the coming weeks…
via: Engadget
