Grant Gross
Senior Writer

Apple wins an injunction against Motorola in German court

news
Mar 1, 20122 mins

The judge grants Apple's request related to a patent for device photo management

Apple has won an injunction potentially requiring Motorola Mobility to recall infringing smartphones, in the two companies’ ongoing patent battle in Germany, according to a blogger following the case.

Presiding Judge Peter Guntz granted Apple the injunction on Thursday, according to Florian Mueller, a patent analyst who writes the FOSS Patents blog. Apple has accused Motorola of infringing its patent for a portable electronic device for photo management.

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The ruling relates to a software feature associated with some functions when viewing photos in a zoomed-in mode, Motorola said in a statement. “We note that the court ruled that performing the functions in a ‘zoomed out’ mode does not infringe on this patent,” the company said. “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.”

Apple did not respond to a request for comments on the ruling.

Apple could require Motorola to destroy or recall infringing devices, Mueller wrote on his blog. However, Motorola “will undoubtedly be able to keep selling its products in Germany by modifying its operating software,” he wrote.

Apple and Motorola, which is being acquired by Google, have been engaged in a patent infringement fight stretching from the U.S. to Europe for several months.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant’s e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

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