A German court has granted Apple a suspension of an injunction of some of its products in that country, according to a report filed by the BBC.
Motorola Mobility won the injunction back in December but chose not to enforce the ruling until just last Friday. As a result of the enforcement, Apple pulled its iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and all 3G-enabled iPads from its German website.
Motorola Mobility licenses the patent in question to other companies under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Apple had not yet agreed to paying a license for the patent.
According to the BBC report, an appeals court lifted the ban after Apple made a revised license payment offer.
It remains unclear how long the suspension of the injunction will last.
Patent analyst Florian Mueller, of FossPatents.blogspot.com wrote on his blog today that Apple is on the right course, saying there was no real reason for investors to panic.
“Apple stakeholders should panic only if (I repeat, if) Apple bows to the threat of FRAND abuse and gives up the level of intellectual property protection without which its business model won’t work as well as it currently does,” Mueller wrote.
Motorola won an unrelated judgment against Apple’s iCloud service last week. That judgment affected all Apple devices which access Apple’s iCloud or MobileMe services and could affect German users’ push email service.
That judgment would only go into effect should Motorola decide to enforce it by posting a bond in the amount of 100 million euro. However, should Apple file and win an appeal, Motorola would then be liable for charges associated with an “improperly-granted injunction.”
Filed Under: Industry regulations
