Apple no longer allowed to sell iPhones in Germany

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Breaking News: Apple no longer allowed to sell Iphone 4S and all other mobile devices in Germany due to infringement of Motorola patent

In one of the strangest twists in the patent war in the mobile industry a German court has just forbidden Apple to import any mobile device in Germany.

The case is quite complex but let me summarize it in laymen´s term. The link below goes into detail and I´m happy to provide more detail in the comments, but I thought it would be handy to have an up to date post which summarizes things without complex judicial or technical terms.

Motorola has in many countries (also in the US) filed infringements against Apple as they violate crucial patents for the mobile technology. So it´s not about the smartphone aspect, nor the design issues, but just the basic mobile phone technology.
Apple has refused to take licenses for Motorola´s patents while all other mobile manufacturers have done so. This is not a new situation, but all attempt from Motorola to get Apple to start paying for licenses failed so they started a number of court cases a long time ago.

Today Florian Mueller who writes about patent technology (see link) got a still not published court verdict in his hands. It´s quite clear: Apple lost this court case in a German court. Why: because they didn´t defend themselves in a timely way.

Now Apple seems to state this is just ´procedural´, but an injunction just means you can´t get any Apple mobile products into the German market. Don´t forget that the German market is huge with a 100 million people and a high spending level.

Apple seems to be in a bit of denial but reading the original court order (I can read German although not perfect) it´s quite clear this is an executable court decision. Apple can´t sell (or more precise import) in Germany.

Now for the why? Why didn´t Apple defend itself. It can´t be that Apple just ´forgot´ to respond to the court case so it will have been deliberate.

One reason of course is that Apple has trouble anyway defending itself in all court cases regarding Motorola´s basic technology.

I´m no judge neither a patent lawyer but I did study law and do understand technology quite well and it seems that Apple should pay a reasonable fee to Motorola for these old mobile technology patents.

What Apple probably wants (and you will see these words a lot in the discussions today) is to get a license on so called FRAND (or RAND) terms, meaning that Fair, Reasonable and Non Discrimanatory. Meaning if they have to pay, they don´t want to pay more than other competitors hence the term FRAND.

Apple could argue (it hasn´t argued don´t forget that) that this Motorola technology has become parts of the 3G and UMTS mobile phone standards and all patents which become part of an official standard have to be offered on these FRAND terms to all interested parties.

Makes sense as otherwise you could at random get one competitor out of the game and that can never be the result of an official standard. Otherwise one company could block someone from entering the mobile market at all or at a price much higher than all others in the market and that´s everything the acronym FRAND tries to prevent.

Is this the reason Apple let the court case slip? There is a rumour that as Apple who is involved in many court cases against a large number of manufacturers tries to get a ruling of the European Community on the FRAND issues in general because they would like to force Samsung to offer Apple technology on FRAND terms. It´s at this moment speculation.

My temporary conclusion, having read everything up until this moment is that Apple betted on the wrong horse and are now facing a huge problem in Germany.

Will they get around the problem by importing the Iphone 4S and all other devices through other European countries? Will they state that only Apple Inc. is convicted and not Apple Germany. A weak case so unlikely.

Source:

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Your thoughts on this?

 

[Retro!]

Sounds like Motorola is trying to get a quick buck.

But I still don't understand why Apple wouldn't fight back for it.

Stop selling in Germany = Loss of a lot of money.

Also I'm pretty sure the people in Germany are disappointed.

 

[Rishwin]

Apple had got a court order preventing Samsung from selling their tabs in both Germany and Australia.

This is payback, and they deserve it.

 

[rebora2007]

Motorola, totally forgot about them.
Anyway, Apple is really in trouble right now, Germans are really big spenders.

 

[Caustik]

What goes around, comes back around

 

[Jolin88]

this is why copyright laws are fucked up, the idea behind it is good, to prevent people to make money out of your ideas but the concept is stretched out so much that it prevents creativity and harms the consumer in the end

 

[Hejula]

Good on Motorola! Its about time someone knocked Apple down a step

 

[jMerliN]

This is what happens when you abuse patent systems, you get bent over and fucked in your tight little idiot, no matter how big you are.

 

[KrYpT0n]

Lol apple, when will you learn...
(Maybe when they develop their own original products...)

 

[Z1ls]

Lol when will Apple learn tht they can't go far without buying the patents -.-

 

[LilyIsDead]

I would assume it would have been cheaper to just pay the license fee than to lose the revenue from German market.

 

[Samus.]

Hurray! Revenge is sweet.

 

[.Yoss.]

It is a mystery to me how anyone can like a CEO who used the law to shut down small businesses who actually sold apples at a decent price. And also laughed at disabled people by parking his 6 month old mercedes on it. He then went to his office to play kriegspiel chess all day while doing acid and laughing at the stupid customers that sponsored him.

 

[XcvcX]

Germans cannot buy Apple products. Apple products continue to grow around the world. Germans really want Apple products. Germany will be allowed to sell future Apple products "I'm sure of it". Apple's sales will skyrocket and Germans will begin to purchase this products.

Taking this country out of this market is only going to cause them to want this product even more. It's like a child, you're teasing the consumers.

 

[Hejula]

Germans cannot buy Apple products. Apple products continue to grow around the world. Germans really want Apple products. Germany will be allowed to sell future Apple products "I'm sure of it". Apple's sales will skyrocket and Germans will begin to purchase this products.

Taking this country out of this market is only going to cause them to want this product even more. It's like a child, you're teasing the consumers.

They can still buy them. Apple can't import there products into Germany but nothing stops Germans getting there iPhones whilst on holiday or on a business trip or something

 

[Samus.]

Ebay will do.

 

[El Jamie]

Quite late, but duck sweet revenge. It is about time Apple started getting back what they've give to other companies and I could imagine Apple would lose some money after this happening.