Motorola wins patent case against Microsoft in Germany

Zeebiz Bureau

Frankfurt: The Google subsidiary, Motorola Mobility has won a patent case against software giant Microsoft in a German court on Friday.

The victory for Motorola comes after three losses to Microsoft in German in patent cases.

The German court ruled that Motorola didn’t infringe on a certain Microsoft patent that we are still trying to identify, and Motorola won’t be faced with any injunction woes for the patent in question.

This allows application developers to avoid writing separate codes for each handset saving time and development costs.

Germany has become a major battleground in the global patent war between makers of mobile phones, tablet computer devices and their operating software because court actions there have proved relatively cheap and quicker than in other jurisdictions.

Microsoft has won three patent cases against Motorola in Germany. As a result of these rulings, smartphones with the disputed technology are no longer available on the German market.

Google bought lossmaking Motorola Mobility for USD 12.5 billion last year, in its largest acquisition ever, aiming to use the company's patents to fend off legal challenges against its Android mobile platform and expand beyond its software business.

Other technology companies have also invested billions of dollars in buying up patent portfolios that they can use against rivals.

With Agency Inputs