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Apple loses patent battle to Motorola

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The Cold war of Apple and Motorola involving patents violations by one another

Apple has been in news again, this time not because of the iPhone, but because of the blow it got from a German court which found Apple guilty of violating the Motorola mobility patent.

For Apple to be proved guilty the reason was put forward as “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system.” which according to the court plays a major in the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) systems of the Apple iPhone and iPad 3G lines.

The court did not fail to mention that Motorola shall pay 100 million euros (equivalent to $134 million) as a bond to force upon the ruling against the Ireland Based division, Apple Sales International. The Foss Patents Florian Mueller was quoted as saying “If Apple doesn’t get a stay on the ruling, its German sales will be impacted”.

But for now, the injunction doesn’t seem to have any effect on Apple’s sales for now. The Senior Vice president of Motorola Mobility said that the company was pleased with the court’s ruling and that the courts decisions shall validate their efforts to compel its patent against the Mac maker.

 A few months ago, when the same court issued a writ against Apple announcing that the Apple products violate two patents which Motorola holds. To which the Jennifer Erickson, Motorola spokesperson added that “We will continue to assert ourselves in the protection of these assets, while also enduring that our technologies are widely available to end users. We hope that we are able to resolve this matter, so we can focus on creating great innovations that benefit the industry”.

Although the case hearing is now scheduled for some time next year, the companies battles in and about German Borders. In October, Motorola raised a case to the United States International Trade commission asserting that Apple violates its 18 Patents, on which Apple exclaimed that Motorola itself breaks six of the patents in relevance to smartphones like Droid, Droid 2 and Droid X.

The cold war continues between the companies followed by a patent loss from Apple which denied Samsung’s request of banning iPhone 4S sales which resulted in the ban of Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the country. 

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Pallab Jyotee Hazarika, 2011-12-15 (Update: 2012-05-26)