German Court Dismisses Apple's Lawsuit against Samsung, Motorola Mobility

In contrast to the recent much- publicized patent case in United States in which Apple was a victor, a German court on Friday dismissed Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung.

Apple had claimed in the German court that Samsung and Google-owned Motorola Mobility infringed on its patents which are used in touchscreen technology.

The ruling by a Mannheim state court was similar to recent decisions in Britain and the Netherlands. Apple could appeal the ruling within the next month.


Image via Shutterstock

In August, Samsung was found to be infringing on Apple patents, and Apple was awarded $1.05 billion after a lengthy and much-publicized trial held in California.

During that trial, Apple claimed Samsung stole patented features of the iPhone. But Samsung counter claimed stating that Apple chose to sue Samsung “rather than competing in the marketplace.” Samsung also unsuccessfully tried to get damages from Apple.

The California case focused on multitouch patents “each one of which is specific to a particular gesture,” according to the Floss Patents blog. But the German case related to “a fairly broad patent that covers the way the operating system reports touch events to applications or purposely ignores them,” the blog post said.

If Apple had won the lawsuit in Germany, it could have led to the rewriting and reinstallation of many apps.

In addition, just a few weeks ago, the High Court of England and Wales cleared HTC of infringement on the same patent, and declared the patent invalid.

On the other hand, Apple won a legal victory last week after the Munich I Regional Court ruled for an injunction after determining that Motorola infringed on the "overscroll bounce" or "rubber-banding" patent. If the Munich decision is not overturned, Motorola will need to replace the overscroll bounce.

In a related matter, this week the Munich I Regional Court held three hearings on cases related to Apple and HTC. They involve the slide-to-unlock patent, the photo gallery page-flipping patent and the overscroll bounce. Decisions on these cases are expected next year.

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