By Motorola just won an important victory in German courts, if FOSS Patents is reporting accurately. The patent in play is Europe-based and is described as a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method” and is found to be infringed upon by Apple’s iCloud service.
The famous judge who’s been dealing with all these Apple suits, Andreas Voss, has ruled a permanent injunction on the service and gave Motorola room to enforce a ban on any products using iCloud immediately if they can post a 100 mill euro bond.
Although this is a permanent injunction Apple will have a chance to appeal but won’t be able to affect Motorola’s enforcing options (which could be almost immediately) at the current moment. The injunction would only be valid in Germany.
Apple took another big blow today as they were forced to pull down any 3G/UMTS iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 units, as well as 3G-enabled iPads, from German store shelves as a result of a German result back in December. It’s unclear whether or not Apple has any further appeal options as they’ve already appealed the ruling and failed to get a decision in their favor.
For all we know, that injunction will last until Motorola wants it to, whether that be for a few months or forever. It’s an interesting day in the patent world, indeed. [FOSS Patents 1 | 2]
The bully gets bullied….
I hate all patent wars from all sides…..but this is necessary.
I think all these law suits are so retarded. But, since Crapple clearly started it, when i see stuff like this, I cant help but say, “Yeaa Buudy!”
ATAST!! (And Then Apple Sued Them)
That is my new answer for everything.
Take it in the face isheep.
Paybacks a bitch
Karma is a bitch, Apple!
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
I hate this. I don’t even feel that Apple started it, this bullshit has been going on for ages. I understand that Moto want to protect their products and get one over on Apple, but the same can be said for Apple when they sue. It stinks, it all stinks and the only winners are the lawyers and their yacht salesmen.
I would say that Apple did actually “start it” but as many people have heard from their parents and/or teachers in the past, “I don’t care who started it, I’ll finish it!” Jokes aside, I LOVE seeing Apple get put back in their place. However, at the end of the day I have to agree with Quboid that the only people who benefit from this crap are the lawyers. These legal battles waste money and hurt choice. I would never use an Apple product, but their competition against Android inspires Android to become even better. What good would a monopoly by any company/product accomplish? You end up in a bad situation (for example, I’m stuck with Comcast, I have no other choice except to give up home phone, Internet, and cable TV and become Amish, and the Amish choice is looking better everyday).
Apple started this battle and I have zero sympathy for them, but the patent war has been going on longer than Apple or Google has existed and whoever started this battle, it was just a matter of time.
Patents are important to protect investment but the present implementation is awful. I don’t know how to fix it, although one quick improvement would be to make any hi-tech or software patents last 20 months rather than 20 years. That’s long enough to get your innovation to the market first, without stuffing up an entire industry with “innovations” that have clearly long since been in the public domain.
This and better filtering of nonsense patents would go a long way. There’s a lot worse than this, but sliding to unlock a smartphone shouldn’t be patentable unless you also have a patent for the thousands of year old concept of a bolt.
iLegal
I’m not a Motorola fan but thank you Motorola, someone had to put Apple in their place.
That would be “Thank you Google” since they own Motorola and all their patents.
A win for the good guys…
I hope Moto bans them for 2 years to teach them a lesson.
I think forever would be better, so Moto could teach them a lesson PERMANENTLY.
Haaaaaaa. Got ’em
GOD another Florian article.
Why do people print his garbage????
Because people don’t recognize it for what it is. If you don’t understand the subject matter, and you see someone who apparently does, and sounds like an expert, then you tend to be subtly influenced by the spin this shill gives for his corporate master.
Dang, that’s a big blow to Apple. If the rest of the world courts use this as precedence, Apple is screwed. You live by the sword, you die by it as well.
If Motorola own some of the icloud patents, then why do they not offer a service like icloud for Android Motorola customers like ME.
I dont want 5gb/10gb/20gb of storage I just want to purchase songs on my phone & take pics, then that data is automatically downloaded to my NAS drive & tablet & laptop then deleted of the cloud, like icloud.
You don’t seem to get just how this works – they don’t own the iCloud patents, Apple used some of Motorola’s patented technology while they were creating iCloud and failed to gain permission to. That same tech is probably used by lots of companies (say, Box.Net and Dropbox) – the difference is, the other companies aren’t trying to litigate Motorola out of the market. This is a survival lawsuit – they will use it in negotiations to settle the suits Apple has filed against them.
As many have said before, this is Apple’s own fault – they turned the patent cold war that has been going on for decades into a shooting war – and it was a really bad idea to do so. Apple’s patent suite is filled with things like “interacting with the screen to unlock the device” and the physical appearance of the iPhone – things that will not stand up long in court because they are either too broad, or are patents building on things that were actually in use before the patent was filed. Moto’s patents are on core underlying technology that are well defined and were not building on previous technologies – and hence are much harder to fight.
ummmm it does already. its called google music/market and picasa
I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, Apple totally deserves it. On the other, I hate patent wars, no matter what side wins.
Exactly. Whoever wins. We lose.
FOSS Patents blog. As you say . . . if FOSS Patents is reporting accurately.
As for facts, maybe it is, but not necessarily, as you recently discovered.
As for opinion or insights, don’t trust it. It is completely biased.
The sad thing is at the end its we the customers who will pay for all their legal fees and also deprived of products we want to buy. Hopefully these judges will use some common sense and realize that these wars are childish and hurting the consumer.
Apple deserved this.
The injuction has already been suspended.
I hate to spoil your Apple-hatred party fandroids (actually I don’t…lol) but you might want to read this:
http://allthingsd.com/20120203/apple-all-ipad-and-iphone-models-will-be-back-on-sale-online-in-germany-shortly/
What a desperate move….trying to sue based a upon a standards essential patent that YOU declared would be available for licensing under FRAND standards…how pitiful :-)
You are right. Suing others because the tablet they made is square with a black frame is ok, though
the definition of what is considered “fair & reasonable” licensing is the question. A flat fee, a price per part, or a % of retail gross. Who is to say what is “fair” in the end?
The only way this will resolve itself is if each camp has a patent (like this) that can nuke their competition. Then by mutually assured destruction they’ll all be forced to sign cross patent license agreements, allowing everyone to continue with the status quo.
This has the unfortunate side-affect of not allowing anyone else into the party (a la x86 fiasco with Intel, AMD, & Via).
Also, it doesn’t seem likely that anyone has much ammo to use against Microsoft, so they will likely continue forcing high cost licenses/royalties. Even if ammo is found, it would be more profitable for them (at current market share) to just exit the market and keep the license machine.
well, apple deserves it %100 but it sucks for germany because people deserve choice. apple never should have started this shit and just been okay with competition
ban was lifted so dont be sorry
Timeline since you are too ignorant to look it up yourself. Apple didn’t start it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone#Patent_licensing_and_litigation
wow bro chill the fuck out, no need to start getting all mad at me and calling names. nokia sued first, then apple sued every other oem out there, they started the war, if you don’t see that you need to take a nap.
anywho, next time be a little more reserved when calling people ignorant, left field comments like that just make you look bad.
yeah…because nokia makes android devices…
FAIL
take your wikipedia article and go crawl back under that rock…
karma apple. but i’d like to see some more solid evidence that this really happened and is staying this way.
when samsung had an injunction put on them, there was an easy work around for it. you never know – this could be another sneaky thing apple is pulling
Victory shall be mine! Apple deserves more than this. Apple loves to steal everything from everyone so I don’t feel sorry for them at all or anyone who supports what they’re doing. I think everyone should just stop buying Apple products until they stop this game they started.
Apple convinced the courts to reverse the injunction and the devices are back up for sale on their German site. Seems Moto is refusing to license the FRAND patents to Apple under fair pricing. The other case involves iCloud, and Apple is trying to have those old pager patents invalidated.
God I am tired of these games…