Apple has removed from its German online shop the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4. According to Florian Müller, this is a consequence of a court decision dating from mid-November 2011 in favor of Motorola Mobility in the case against Apple over the infringement of patents related to 3G technologies.
In this case as in all cases these basic technologies for mobile telephony, the judge is satisfied with both parties that the patents were not considered essential to the standard and therefore open to a reasonable and non-licensed discriminatory (FRAND). Apple has abandoned this line of defense and lost the case and, despite a call, then pronounced the injunction is still valid, especially since Motorola has applied for execution provisionnant a fund of 100 million euros.
The iPhone 4S, although with a 3G chip, is always available: it uses a Qualcomm chipset, unlike the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4, using an Infineon chipset / Intel. It is likely that as Samsung, Motorola has signed a cross-licensing agreement with Qualcomm, a pioneer in cellular technologies: the iPhone 4S, by extension, would be protected. This hypothesis could still be challenged by the situation of the iPad 2 3G, also equipped with a Qualcomm chip, which is not clear: it is always present in the German store, but you can not finish the purchasing process.
Judge Andreas Voss, who was not convinced by the arguments of Apple in mid-November, granted this morning a second permanent injunction against Motorola Mobility Apple Sales International, this time against icloud and all devices able to connect. Again, no patent FRAND was in the balance, and Motorola may seek its enforcement in provisionnant a fund of 100 million euros. Only a decision on appeal may vacate the injunction.
[Update @ 5:10 p.m.] The ambiguous nature of the patent in question has allowed Apple to get a stay of the injunction of Motorola. In a statement, Apple said it had “appealed this decision because Motorola has repeatedly refused to offer a license on reasonable terms, although she had declared the patent industry standard there are seven years. ”
The Cupertino company seems to have again chosen the axis FRAND defense that won him some successes in recent months, especially when faced with Samsung: if a patent covers a technology seen as a standard, then the holding company must offer licenses on terms fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory. The whole question is therefore whether this patent is the FRAND or not.
iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G iPad 2 and 4 are back in the German Apple Store. Motorola has now obtained a new injunction against Apple, this time against icloud and devices that can connect to it, without any FRAND patent can be challenged. It is not known yet if the company provisionnera fund of 100 million euros necessary to set execution of this decision, the ramifications are not yet well defined.
