Motorola has just scored a pretty significant injunction against Apple’s iCloud, as a decision in its favor was handed down by judge Andreas Voss in a German court room. The “permanent injunction” forced the Cupertino-based company to remove most of its products from its German-based online store including the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4 as well as any 3G-enabled iPads. Both companies have been in a patent battle for months, with Motorola getting the best of the iPhone maker so far.
Lots of developments have occurred after this initial ruling, so lets sort them out. To understand what’s going on, you must first understand which patent is in question. Motorola filed a case against Apple for its “multiple pager status synchronization system and method,” which is something Apple uses in its iCloud product. Yes, this is a huge deal.
As expected, Apple has appealed the decision. And from the latest news coming in, all its devices in question will return back on its German online store shortly. The Cupertino giant released a comment to AllThingsD.
“All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple’s online store in Germany shortly,” an Apple spokeswoman told AllThingsD. “Apple appealed 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.”
So what does this all mean? Well, this suspension is more than likely a temporary thing, as the battle will continue on the basis of appeal. Apple’s argument is Motorola Mobility is not honoring the FRAND licensing obligations (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) it has on some standards-essential patents.
In the end, I expect these two to work out some sort of licensing agreement, because Apple is swimming in cash and Motorola needs some of that loot. Of course, once Motorola becomes a part of Google, you have to wonder how/if the negotiations will change.
[via AllThingsD]