Today morning began with multiple reports of Motorola striking a win against Apple in a German quote. After weeks of Apple dominating legal proceedings across the globe against Samsung and others, this sure was a surprise win for Motorola. In fact even Apple is suing Motorola over the design of its Xoom tablet in Germany. But comments from Motorola claiming protection of its assets and hoping to resolve the issue soon speak only half the story.
What really happened is highlighted by Nilay Post of The Verge. Motorola’s has separate lawsuit against Apple Inc (the US entity) and its German subsidiary. The injunction that Motorola has scored is against Apple Inc and not its German subsidy ‘Apple Germany.’ It is like scoring a goal when there is no opponent team present to defend the goal post. Apple probably is focussing its effort on the end of its German entity and a victory against Apple Inc makes no sense as it doesn’t sell anything directly in German.
Apple of course came back with a statement labeling this as a “procedural issue ” and clarifying that it won’t effect the sales of its products in Germany. The Verge has a confirmation that Apple would still appeal against the judgement. So before you raise an eyebrow with media reports of Motorola scoring an injunction against Apple or Apple products being banned in Germany, sit back relax and get some popcorn out, because this is far from over. What does happen is that Motorola gets some cheer for a hollow victory, sure helps them. Until the next round of judgement comes in …