IronMaxipad
11-04-2011, 07:47 PM
Florian Mueller isn’t a patent attorney but he plays one on his blog FOSSPatents. For better or worse, he’s often quoted in the ongoing mobile technology patent battles where the winner is often Apple. He’s also German so he probably understands this new, disturbing ruling a lot better than us (Our German is “rostig”)
Apple knows what it’s like to win injunctions against rivals. It won four of them against Samsung (two in Germany, one in the Netherlands and most recently one in Australia; all of them preliminary). Now it seems that Apple has just come out on the losing end of a patent infringement lawsuit. I have received a copy of what purports to be a default judgment by the Mannheim Regional Court barring Apple from selling in Germany — the single largest market in Europe – any mobile devices infringing on two Motorola Mobility patents and determining that Apple owes Motorola Mobility damages for past infringement since April 19, 2003.
If true, this would be a Hindenburg-sized backfire for Apple’s legal efforts in Europe. The two patents and their US equivalents, below:
EP (European Patent) 1010336 (B1) (http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?FT=D&date=20030319&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&CC=EP&NR=1010336B1&KC=B1)on a “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898
EP (European Patent) 0847654 (B1) (http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?FT=D&date=20020220&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&CC=EP&NR=0847654B1&KC=B1) on a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 5,754,119
Apple knows what it’s like to win injunctions against rivals. It won four of them against Samsung (two in Germany, one in the Netherlands and most recently one in Australia; all of them preliminary). Now it seems that Apple has just come out on the losing end of a patent infringement lawsuit. I have received a copy of what purports to be a default judgment by the Mannheim Regional Court barring Apple from selling in Germany — the single largest market in Europe – any mobile devices infringing on two Motorola Mobility patents and determining that Apple owes Motorola Mobility damages for past infringement since April 19, 2003.
If true, this would be a Hindenburg-sized backfire for Apple’s legal efforts in Europe. The two patents and their US equivalents, below:
EP (European Patent) 1010336 (B1) (http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?FT=D&date=20030319&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&CC=EP&NR=1010336B1&KC=B1)on a “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898
EP (European Patent) 0847654 (B1) (http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?FT=D&date=20020220&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&CC=EP&NR=0847654B1&KC=B1) on a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 5,754,119