German court grants Motorola injunction against Apple’s iCloud and MobileMe push email service and client devices (Update: Apple to appeal)

The battle is fierce, and Steve Jobs who vowed to go “thermonuclear war” with Google’s Android, might actually go through with his threats if he were alive today – after putting into consideration the latest developments at a German court that granted Motorola an injunction against Apple’s iCloud and MobileMe push email service as well as client devices. This is a permanent injunction, and it will not only affect Apple’s iCloud and its predecessor, MobileMe, but also all devices which are able to access it. Having said that, Apple has also pulled the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, in addition to all iPads that have 3G/UMTS connectivity in response to a December 2011 decision where Motorola, too, picked up an injunction against Apple after Motorola’s European patents were infringed upon by Apple.

Technically, this might be a permanent injunction, but it is still “preliminarily enforceable”, meaning Apple has an avenue to appeal – and they would most likely do so. Motorola, however, has the option to enforce it by posting a €100 million bond. As an Apple customer in Germany, what can you do? Is it the end of the world, and will you need to make the jump to the Android platform? Not really, as if you want to continue to receive iCloud/MobileMe email, all you need to do is to set a client to check for new emails periodically and pull them. A couple of minutes’ delay in getting an email never killed anybody (figure of speech, don’t take me word for word on that).

Update: Alan of Apple has emailed us, and Apple has confirmed that they will be filing an appeal. From the horse’s mouth, “Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we’re appealing the courts decision.”

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple
Tags: Apple Inc, germany, lawsuit, Legal, Motorola, Patent