“A German court set dates Friday to decide on two cases brought by Apple Inc. against Google Inc. unit Motorola and Samsung Electronics Ltd. for the alleged infringement of a patent related to multi-touch, enabled devices that Apple claims have been violated,” Friedrich Geiger reports for The Wall Street Journal.

“The Mannheim court heard arguments Friday from lawyers for each party, and set the date for a decision in the Motorola case for Aug. 31, and for Samsung on Sept. 21,” Geiger reports. “The lawsuits concern a touchscreen function crucial to many smartphone applications, which allow touchscreens to sense multiple touches at the same time, for example, when two fingers are pressed simultaneously to different points on the screen. The patent, EP2098948, protects the ability of a device’s screen to recognize multiple touches in some areas, while other areas do not.”

“‘A court ruling in favor of Apple would have far-reaching complications for many Android applications,” said patent analyst Florian Mueller,” Geiger reports. “While Google would likely amend the Android operating system so it no longer violates the patent, many apps and games designed for the current and previous versions of the popular operating system wouldn’t run properly on the amended version, he said.”

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