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October 04, 2013

Apple Finally Allowed to Offer Push E-mail Notifications to German iCloud Users

Following the reversal of a 19-month injunction brought to court by Google’s Motorola Mobility, Apple’s iCloud push e-mail notification service was made available to German users on Tuesday, according to FossPatents.com.

The injunction was brought on by Google’s own push e-mail synchronization patent, which according to AppleInsider.com, was invalidated by a UK court last December. Despite that invalidation, however, the company was able to continue enforcing the ban in Germany. In September Apple won a stay on the injunction following an appeal, but the company had to post a bond worth $132 million in order to lift it.

Google will return to patent court in November for a nullity hearing regarding the patent, which, if ruled invalid, would mean that Google will owe Apple damages for enforcing an improper injunction prematurely.

The U.S. equivalent of this patent dispute between the two companies is scheduled to go to court in Florida next summer, according to FossPatents.com.

The injunction was of minor annoyance to German iOS device users, who were forced to set their devices to manually fetch their e-mails. The feature was restored at 9 p.m. local in Germany on Tuesday, which is 3 p.m. Eastern time in the United States.

In a separate Germany-based case brought forth by Motorola and Samsung, Apple’s iOS “bounce-back effect” patent was declared invalid in September, according to ZDNet.com. The federal patent court cited a presentation given by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs in January 2007, where he unveiled the iPhone, and ruled that it was made before the patent request was filed. While there is a 12-month grace period to file patents in the U.S., so such period exists in Germany.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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