A German court today banned sales of Apple’s iPhone and iPad which could mean that sales of Apple iOS devices may get banned across the European Union.
The ruling was handed down by the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany. It relates to a patent infringement complaint filed by Motorola last April. Apple was accused of infringing a Motorola-owned patent which covers a method of performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system.
The ruling is still preliminary and according to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents it could only be enforced against the Irish Apple subsidiary Apple Sales International. The decision affects sales of iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2, although the iPhone 4S may be covered as well.
There are two ways Apple could deal with the issue – either remove the infringing functionality from its iOS devices or appeal to Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court in order to avoid the ban.
Source: bgr.com