Google-owned Motorola has achieved a rare victory against software giant Microsoft in a German patent case.
The regional court in Mannheim ruled that Motorola Mobility did not infringe a Microsoft patent that enables applications to work on different smartphones.
However, Microsoft has previously won a total of three patent cases against Motorola in Germany, with the latter's smartphones containing the technology being infringed no longer available on the German market. A sales injunction on such devices includes the Droid Razr and Razr Maxx.
"This decision does not impact multiple injunctions Microsoft has already been awarded and has enforced against Motorola products in Germany," said David Howard, associate general counsel at Microsoft.
Google had bought Motorola for $12.5 billion last year, with the predominate reason being to acquire the company's patents in order to prevent legal challenges against their popular Android mobile platform.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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nameon I say, team up microsoft and google and take on that half-eaten rotten apple once and for allReply -
shafe88 nameonI say, team up microsoft and google and take on that half-eaten rotten apple once and for allWhat good's that gonna do when Microsoft is turning out just like apple. If someone want's to sue Microsoft than why not sue them for that god ugly Modern(Metro) UI.Reply
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falchard I think Microsoft sueed Motorola to prove a point to all the Android makers that there is no way they can get out of the Microsoft Royalty Payments.Reply -
MaXimus421 Smartphones are the money making devices atm.Reply
These companies are all chasing the same dollar right now. I am not the least bit surprised that Apple/Google/Microsoft/Samsung are doing the dance in court battles over and over.
The problem is that all their devices are all some what decent. Making them ALL very profitable.
That is the exact thing THEY ALL do NOT want.
They want one device to rule them all. Well... that's just not going to happen anytime in the near future regardless of how many lawsuits are filed. And if one of these companies are given a monopoly on smartphones, so be it. Will suck for a while for the consumer, but it will force creativeness in the other companies future devices.
Just my two cents.