Motorola loses German appeal on Microsoft patent injunction

Google subsidiary Motorola has lost an appeal on the injunction that was placed on the company by a court in Germany in 2012 over a patent owned by Microsoft concerning multi-part text messages.

In May 2012, a German court ruled that an injunction must be placed on Motorola’s Android based-devices being sold in that country, because the judge felt the devices violated one of Microsoft patents. Today, Motorola, now owned by Google, lost an appeal on that injunction in court.

FOSS Patents reports the decision today will keep Motorola smartphones from being sold in Germany. Originally, the court ruled Motorola violated Microsoft's EP1304891 patent, which deals with “communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface."

Motorola can still have the decision appealed again and heard before the German Federal Court of Justice. It could also ask that the German Federal Patent Court rule that Microsoft's original patent is invalid. However, at this stage, it's highly unlikely that either scenario will happen.

Microsoft has been signing many patent agreements with most Android-based smartphone companies for the past couple of years, including a patent deal with ZTE earlier this week. One of the biggest holdouts in signing Android patent license deals with Microsoft is Motorola, and it would appear that situation will not be changing in the near future unless Motorola keeps losing court cases such as this one.

Source: FOSS Patents | Gavel image via Shutterstock