Apple will now be allowed to sell its devices, the iPad 2 with 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4 in Germany through its online store after all. This is thanks to an extension that was granted on a temporary basis to Apple by a German court today. As the BBC noted, an appeals court in Germany finally lifted the ban that had been imposed upon some specific iOS devices. This was right after Apple had been ordered to remove these iOS devices from its online store in Germany on Friday. While this represents a minor victory for Apple in its patent deadlock with Motorola, Motorole has indicated that it will not give up in its pursuit of this case.
Motorola had won an injunction that only applied to Germany against Apple in December 2011. This was over a patent relating to “Method for Performing a Countdown Function During a Mobile-Originated Transfer for a Packet Radio System”. In other words, it implied that any and all Apple products that used 3G data to any degree were likely to be affected. The enforcement of this December decision was what forced Apple to remove the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and the 3G equipped iPad from its online store, the result of a permanent injunction granted earlier today.
However, the iPhone 4S was not included within this enforcement because of a technicality. FOSS Patents pointed out that the iPhone 4S used a baseband Qualcomm-made chip that none of the earlier 3G-equipped devices from Apple had. It was also likely that Qualcomm and Motorola’s cross-licensing agreement extended to Apple as regards the iPhone 4S, keeping it outside the purview of the permanent injunction.
Earlier today, almost immediately after the injunction was brought into force, a spokesperson from Apple told All Things D that the company was preparing to add the products that it had removed back to the online store soon. They also said that Apple had appealed against the ruling because Motorola had been repeatedly refusing to license the said patent to Apple on terms which might be considered reasonable and that this was despite having had it declared as an industry patent over seven years ago.
The order for the temporary suspension of the injunction was sent out by the appeals court right after Apple finally made a new offer for the license payment.
