Microsoft's latest patent lawsuit against Motorola was ruled in favor of Motorola in Mannheim, Germany regional court today. The patent in question related to the interoperability of software between handsets, which, as you could imagine, is a pretty big deal in the Android ecosystem. While this is great news for Motorola, and to a lesser extend Google, Microsoft still has a German sales injunction in place against the Motorola Atrix, the Droid RAZR and the Droid RAZR Maxx thanks to previous legal victories. Stateside, Motorola had previously suffered a hefty ban through the ITC for infringing on another Microsoft patent.
Outside of courts, Google still has to pare down Motorola's operations even while they're still making strategic investments. Motorola has a long road to recovery, but hopefully it can fend off future sales injunctions with Google behind 'em.
Any German readers out there affected by the previous bans? Should tech giants be able to partially or completely lock out competitors from international markets in this way, or is there a better way to protect patents?
Via: Reuters
