Will Apple Have To Stop Selling iPhones and iPads After Losing A Motorola Lawsuit?
A German court preliminarily ruled against Apple last week, declaring that they had violated a patent owned by Motorola Mobility. Apple must now successfully appeal the decision, or remove the patented function from all of their iOS devices in Europe. If neither of these are successful, the court could demand damages from Apple and halt all sales of iPhones and iPads under the administration of Apple’s Irish-based subsidiary, Apple Sales International.
An Apple salesperson said they would appeal the decision immediately, and reassured consumers during one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year. “Holiday shoppers in Germany should have no problem finding the iPad or iPhone they want,” he said, according the AP.
The patent has to do with GPRS, a service that deals with how data is transmitted and measured on mobile devices.
Florian Mueller, a software patent expert, writes that it might not be “commercially viable” for Apple to remove the offending program from all of their devices.
Mueller also highlights that this case is just one of dozens currently being fought by Apple against competitors Motorola and Samsung, in courts across the US and the world. (As we reported earlier, Apple recently scored a victory against Samsung in a dispute over tablet design.) Mueller’s latest “battlemap” of Motorola vs. Apple shows 51 patents being disputed in seven different courts.
What do you think? In the end, which mobile devices will reign supreme?
[Source: BGR; Image via modmyi.com]
wow. It’s good to see Dr. Jay’s blogging. I never had a clue you guys would be into the online blogging game. keep up the good work on your blogging efforts. Looking for to stop by more often
this is soo crazy its not even funny all of motorola’s phones and electronics suck **** they just hating iphones and stuff been out for some time now why they just now sayin something???