Apple has been on the winning side of patent battles recently – with the Cupertino based company blocking sales of various Samsung devices in different places round the world. This time, however, it appears that they are on the losing side as Motorola Mobility have gained an injunction preventing sales of various Apple devices in Germany – Europe’s largest single market.
According to patent expert Florian Mueller, Motorola have obtained a default judgement Mannheim Regional Court barring Apple from selling in Germany. Interestingly, this decision is “preliminarily enforcible” – meaning Motorola Mobilty can start enforcing this injunction and block sales of all Apple mobile devices right now before Apple can appeal the ruling.
Apple may believe, rightly or wrongly, that their resellers will work around this decision by sourcing Apple products from EU countries outside this ban – as enforcing a preliminary ban against resellers will be difficult before the case has been properly adjudicated – but the situation is far from ideal. Whether this decision comes from Apple’s lack of filing their response in a timely manner (unlikely), or whether they wanted to set out their arguments in full in the appeal, is unknown – but it is interesting to see Apple on the other side for once.
Here’s the court document:
11-11-04 Default Judgment for MMI Against Apple
[via FOSS Patents]