“A German court Tuesday ruled the Xoom tablet, made by Google Inc.’s Motorola Mobility, doesn’t infringe on the design of Apple Inc.’s iPad, but it rejected a claim made by Motorola that the iPad’s design patent is invalid,” Harriet Torry reports for Dow Jone Newswires.
“Apple initially sued Motorola for allegedly infringing three iPad designs with the Xoom. It sought to have the device banned across Europe,” Torry reports. “Although the judges ruled Motorola’s Xoom doesn’t infringe on the iPad, the court rejected a counterclaim brought by Motorola alleging the iPad’s design patent is invalid, a spokesman for the court said.”
Torry reports, “As the court ultimately rejected both parties’ claims, it ordered Apple to pay two-thirds of costs and Motorola to pay a third, the spokesman added.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, for now, Europe’s store shelves can continue to be littered with yet another POS Android-based wannabe iPad that nobody’s even giving a second glance to, much less buying.
Related articles:
Motorola moves only 200K tablets, reports $80-million loss in Christmas quarter – January 27, 2012
Motorola only shipped 100,000 Xoom tablets last quarter – October 27, 2011
European courts as well as those in America seem to favor competition over patent enforcement. Oh yes, your patent is valid, but this thing that looks, and tries to act, just like it doesn’t violate the patent. Do they actually believe Moto and Samsung could have designed their products without copying Apple’s? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
Ah the Motorola Xoom. I’d forgotten about that one. Is it still being produced?
AKA The Motorola Zume.
+1 😀
And in another recent decision, the blind German judge ruled that……
“I looked at the judge, then I looked at the seein’ eye dog. And realized it was a case of American blind justice, and the judge wasn’t gonna look at the 27 color 8 by 10 glossy photographs with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back explainin’ what each one was about. – Alice’s Restaurant
100
Great funny song, haven’t heard that one in ages!