Motorola’s ban on iPad, iPhone sales suspended in Germany

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple has been granted a temporary suspension of a sales ban imposed on some of its products in Germany, BBC News reported.

Motorola Mobility had forced Apple to remove several iPad and iPhone models from its online store earlier today, February 3 after enforcing a patent infringement court ruling delivered in December. An appeals court lifted the ban after Apple made a new licence payment offer.

However, Germany-based users may still face the loss of their push email iCloud service after a separate ruling.

A statement from Apple said: "All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly. Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."

A spokesman for Motorola was unable to comment on the case.

Patent consultant Florian Mueller who attended the Mannheim District court review told the BBC it was not yet clear exactly why the sales ban had been lifted.

"A very plausible explanation would be that Apple made a new offer to Motorola to license its standard essential patents - the new offer was certainly discussed in court this afternoon. The appeals court may have felt that meant that the suspension should be lifted."