Motorola permanently banned on unlock motion

Apple won a crucial win against Motorola in a Munich court after it won a permanent ban against most Motorola uses of its slide-to-unlock patent. Motorola's current smartphones, though not its tablets, allegedly copy two techniques first seen in 2007 on the iPhone. A third representation leveled against the Xoom (and likely Xyboard) was exempted and likely points to Android 3 and 4 devices not being covered by the victory.
In keeping with German law, Apple as the winner has to enforce the ban against a bond. The company may have to sue or otherwise block individual store chains, although it could face countersuits much as HTC sued IPCom to try and stop it from enforcing its own patent trial win.
Motorola hasn't commented, but it's expected to appeal the case.
The Droid designer at first had early wins against Apple in Germany but now appears to be struggling to avoid legal setbacks. It was denied a 3G lawsuit less than one week ago and has so far had a call for a preliminary ban temporarily mitigated. Apple now has a standing victory of its own in Germany and will be forcing Motorola to either change the lock screen behavior on many phones or else push upgrades to those phones that would support Android 4.0. [via Florian Mueller]
By Electronista Staff