Dealing several massive blows to Apple in Germany this week and in fact, also from a case involving 3G patents that concluded last year, Motorola has been awarded a permanent injunction both against Apple iCloud + connecting devices and, against 3G UTMS-enabled devices, as Apple's appeal against last year's ruling fails.
At this stage the iCloud permanent injunction is "preliminarily enforceable", meaning that it is open to appeal, however Motorola may seek to enforce the injunction if it's willing to place forwards an £83 million bond. The patent in question specifically focused on the Push E-Mail service of iCloud and so it is perhaps possible that, in the meantime, Apple may look to disable the infringing element.
Whilst no action has yet been taken in regards to the iCloud injunction, German news agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, has reported that the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, along with any 3G UMTS iPads have now been pulled from Apple Germany's online store in relation to last year's case.
Though some serious legal ramblings are taking place in Germany, this has not prevented Apple from fighting back against the Android community on other fronts, with the firm launching a renewed strike against Samsung in Australia. Apple has now raised 278 claims involving 72 separate patents, as opposed to the three patents debated over last year.
Unlike last year's claims, which focused only on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, this year's focus on 10 separate devices, some of which are yet to launch in Australia. On grounds that the firm only received short notice of the lawsuit, Samsung states that it will not be able to file a defence until mid-May, meanwhile Australian judge Justice Bennett stated that she is eager to settle both matters before the end of the year, in order to keep pace with other wordwide cases.
It looks as though Apple, Motorola and Samsung lawyers all have their work cut-out for them over 2012.
Informative links:
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2012/02/motorola-wins-german-injunction-against.html
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2012/02/apple-removed-products-from-german.html
