The Mannheim Regional Court in Germany pronounced a decision on a German Motorola Mobility lawsuit against Apple Sales International, issuing an injunction against Apple, ruling that Motorola patent no. EP0847654 infringed certainly by Apple email services – focused primarily on push email features available through Apple’s iCloud and MobileMe services. The injunction is a permanent one, not a preliminary one – resulted from a full proceeding with a trial.
Earlier, Apple confirmed that the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and 3G/UMTS-based iPads should be returning to the shelves of its German online store in a matter of hours after we reported that Apple has removed, as a result of an injunction Motorola won in Mannheim over a FRAND-pledged patents declared essential to an industry standard, several 3G/UMTS-capable products from its German online store – the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4 (but not the iPhone 4S), and all 3G/UMTS-capable iPads.
The patent is titled “Multiple Pager Status Synchronization System and Method” and claims priority back to 1995. To the extent it covers push email services, which 1995 date may suggest Motorola was working on push technology for pagers around the same time as RIM. Well on a whole, this is already the third Mannheim judgment in Motorola’s favor against Apple. By contrast, Samsung has lost its first two Mannheim cases against Apple. The judgement is appealable and it’s a given that Apple will appeal this to the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court.
