Apple on Thursday won an injunction in Germany against all of Motorola Mobility’s Android devices, according to FOSSPatents. The ruling comes on the heels of another victory Apple scored in a German appeals court on Monday. Judge Dr. Peter Guntz ruled that Motorola infringed Apple’s patent for a “portable electronic device for photo management.” Motorola smartphones apparently use Apple’s patent for page-turning in zoomed-in mode — but not zoomed-out mode — in the photo gallery app. If Apple enforces the injunction, it can require Motorola to destroy any infringing products in its possession in Germany and recall, at the company’s expense, any infringing products from German retailers, which will then be destroyed as well. The Cupertino-based company previously attacked Samsung over the same feature, however Samsung modified its code to avoid a ban in the Netherlands — a move Motorola may follow.
UPDATE: Motorola issued a statement to BGR in response to Judge Guntz’s ruling. The company’s response now follows below in its entirety.
Today’s ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a ‘zoomed in’ mode on mobile devices. We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a ‘zoomed out’ mode does not infringe on this patent. We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience.
