Motorola loses rubber-banding patent case against Apple in Germany

Not long after its stateside patent win against Samsung has Apple secured another victory against Android, this time for an overscrolling bounce-back patent against Motorola in Germany. The win will likely mean a sales injunction as soon as Apple posts its 25 million euro bond, and for an extra 10 million euros, it can get Motorola to destroy the infringing devices. For another 10 million euros beyond that, Apple can force Motorola to announce a recall. It's worth noting that pushing that hard will also give Motorola a chance to appeal. Moto will also have a shot at appealing the damages for past infringement. 

Motorola has been contesting the validity of this patent, "List Scrolling and Document Translation, Scaling, and Rotation on a Touch-screen display", through the entire case, though Apple has defended it successfully so far and will do so one more time in Mannheim Regional Court on December 7 before all is said and done. 

Although Google owns Motorola and any patent wins against them ultimately affects Android, stock Android has been using glow effects instead of rubber-banding for overscrolling for some time now. At worst, it's a mild irritant that Google has to find work-arounds for these sort of things, but they're ultimately small details that won't significantly impact the Android experience. 

There's been quite a bit of talk about how many companies will sue Apple for LTE patent infringement once the iPhone 5 launches, which may be considerably more difficult to get around depending on who files the lawsuits and on what grounds. Should stuff like rubber-banding be patentable, or does it too obvious to be laid claim to? How many of Apple's complaints up to this point have you seen as valid? Has Google's investment in Motorola as a patent bulwark proven to be effective or is it more of a liability?

Via: FOSS Patents

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/3gNA39y9Mv8/story01.htm

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