Florian Mueller isn’t a patent attorney but he plays one on his blog FOSSPatents.  For better or worse, he’s often quoted in the ongoing mobile technology patent battles where the winner is often Apple.  He’s also German so he probably understands this new, disturbing ruling a lot better than us (Our German is “rostig”)

If true, this would be a Hindenburg-sized backfire for Apple’s legal efforts in Europe.

The two patents and their US equivalents, Statements from Apple and Motorola and an update from Mueller below:

Update: It looks like Motorola is confirming the injunction with this press statement:

Apple’s official statement:

I have updated my blog post to comment on Motorola’s and Apple’s statements and on the claim that this is “totally symbolic” because it affects “only” Apple’s worldwide parent company, not the German subsidiary at this stage.

At the end of the updated post I list the three issues that this injunction raises regardless of whether or not it binds the German subsidiary directly:

  1. Even Apple’s German website belongs to Cupertino, not to the German subsidiary, and Motorola could argue it’s an act of “offering” the products banned under the ruling.

  2. In the German Galaxy Tab 10.1 case, Apple sued not only Samsung Germany but also Samsung Korea (a fact that played quite a role in that case). Apple and other right holders sue worldwide parent companies all the time. Nobody would do it if there were no point in it. It’s a very risky assumption that a worldwide parent company can’t be held responsible in any way for what its wholly-owned subsidiaries do.

  3. Under the injunction, Apple Inc. cannot deliver new goods to Apple GmbH.

In this overall context it’s important to consider that Apple says the ruling does not affect its business “at this time”. What does “at this time” mean? Until the German subsidiary runs out of supply? Until Motorola Mobility takes further action to enforce this? Maybe Apple will get a ruling on the actual merits of the case before there’s business impact. But that’s not clear.

 

  • EP (European Patent) 1010336 (B1) on a “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898
  • EP (European Patent) 0847654 (B1) on a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 5,754,119