Apple Loses to Motorola Over Patent Dispute

It has not been a good week for Apple. First a Chinese court rejected Apple’s trademark lawsuit and now Motorola has scored one over the Cupertino-based company.

The Illinois company won a legal battle against Apple, where a judge ruled against Apple for infringing Motorola’s patents. The judge found that certain Apple products infringe Motorola’s patents for data packet transfer technology (GPRS).

Earlier, Motorola got the rights from a German court to slap a preliminary injunction against Apple’s devices like the iPad and the iPhone. This could mean that Apple’s products might not find a place on the German stores’ shelves.

However, for that to happen, Motorola has to post a $134 million bond. And in case Apple wins that ruling, then the Cupertino company gets to pocket that amount as compensation for the losses incurred during the injunction.

So, it all depends on Motorola whether to risk a large amount or not. Apple, on the other hand, said that it will appeal the ruling in order to postpone any ban on their products.

There’s a way Apple could avoid all this legal tussle, and that’s by removing the infringing feature from its devices. But then, if the feature is commercially important to the company then Apple would have to find a way out.

Otherwise, Apple could go for a license for the technology from Motorola. Motorola, in its statement, said that they have been trying for an Apple license since 2007 and that they “will continue our efforts to resolve our global patent dispute as soon as possible.”