Apple wins another one against Motorola in Germany
A German court has ruled that Motorola Mobility violates a patent Apple holds related to the way in which photo galleries are displayed in mobile operating systems.
Another day, another ruling in a German court battle between Apple and Motorola Mobility.
Judge Dr. Peter Guntz of the Munich I Regional Court ruled today that Motorola violates a photo gallery patent Apple holds, according to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who was in attendance at the proceeding. The ruling gives Apple the opportunity to ban all infringing Motorola products, including two of the company's Android-based smartphones and the Xoom tablet. Mueller didn't say which two smartphones were included in the suit.
Apple is not compelled to enforce the ban. However, if it does, Mueller says that Motorola would be forced to destroy any infringing products in its possession.
That has become a common theme in recent rulings across Germany. Last month, a German court ruled Motorola violated Apple's slide-to-unlock patent and could have seen its products banned from sale. But Motorola made a quick change to keep its products on store shelves.
"Today's ruling in the patent litigation brought by Apple in Munich, Germany, concerns a software feature related to phone unlocking in select Motorola devices sold in Germany," the Motorola spokesperson told CNET at the time. "Motorola has implemented a new design for the feature. Therefore, we expect no impact on current supply or future sales."
This time around, Motorola says that the ruling came down because of a "zoomed in" function in the photo gallery. That function has been modified to ensure Motorola's products don't infringe Apple's patents.
"Today's ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a 'zoomed in' mode on mobile devices," a Motorola spokeswoman told CNET in an e-mailed statement. "We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a 'zoomed out' mode does not infringe on this patent.
"We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience," the spokeswoman continued.
Apple declined to comment on the ruling.