Presiding Judge Dr. Peter Guntz of the Munich I Regional Court in Germany has publicly announced a decision in Apple’s favor: most of Motorola Mobility’s products were found to infringe on Apple’s slide-to-unlock image patent, reports “FOSS Patents” (http://macte.ch/iipkZ).
“Today’s ruling is a permanent injunction that Apple could enforce at its own risk (against a bond),” writes Florian Mueller for “FOSS Patents.” “… this is largely a win for Apple that will result in a noticeable degradation of the user experience of Motorola’s products.”
This is part of an ongoing battle between the two companies. Apple has previously alleged that Motorola infringes 24 of its patents (21 of them with Android-based phones, the remaining three with set-top boxes and DVRs), while Motorola previously asserted 18 patents against a variety of Apple products (mostly but not exclusively iPhone, iPad and iPod). Litigation between the two companies has taken place in several different federal courts.
In November 2010 Apple sued Motorola, alleging that the company’s smartphone lineup and the operating software it uses infringe on the iPhone-maker’s intellectual property. The two lawsuits came after Motorola sued Apple in October 2010 for patent infringement. Motorola claims that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents.