Date:04/02/12

Apple forced to stop selling iPhones and iPads in Germany over row about patents

Apple was temporarily told to remove the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 from sale in Germany today after a court row broke out with rival Motorola.
 
The technology giant was told this morning it had to stop selling the products on its online store because of an on-going patent issue.
 
Motorola and Apple are quarreling over the licence relating to the products' GPRS module, and the court said no more could be sold until the dispute was resolved.
Apple duly removed the smartphone and tablet as requested. The iPhone 4S, which uses a Qualcomm chip, was exempt from the ban.
 
But following an appeal by Apple's lawyers, the injunction was suspended and Apple put the products back up on sale.
 
Shortly after the appeal result, Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said: 'All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly.

'Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.'
 
Huguet also commented on a separate Motorola case, one in which the rival has asserted Apple is violating their patent that covers the push e-mail capability of iCloud and its predecessor, the MobileMe service.
 
Apple lost the first round in this battle, with the German court ruling in favor of Motorola on Friday morning.
But Huguet said should Motorola prevail in the appeals process, subscribers to Apple's service would still be able to receive their email, just not have it pushed to their devices.
 
According to Huguet, the courts have not yet served Apple with an injunction to stop that service in the German market, and so push notifications will continue.
 
Huguet said: 'Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we're appealing the courts decision.'

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