Germans smack Motorola Mobility
Microsoft has won an important German patent injunction against Google subsidiary, Motorola Mobility.
Redmond claimed that the Android operating system infringed patent no. EP1304891 on "communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardised interface". The German win means that Google has to choose between paying royalties and license patents from Microsoft for its intellectual property used by Android, or abandoning Germany.
Motorola is the only major Android OEM that has not licensed patents from Microsoft yet. Redmond sued them in USA, and Germany and won an import ban against Android based Motorola devices in USA. Google could fix the problem, but that means Android apps that make use of Android's messaging layer would have to be rewritten from scratch.
It is just the sort of mess that Microsoft would want to see as it starts to release its own Android killer Windows 8. If Google pays up while fixing the software mess up, then Microsoft will still be a winner.
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Nick Farrell
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