“Yesterday I reported on an order by an appeals court that enables Apple to stop Google’s (Motorola Mobility’s) enforcement of a push notification patent against the push email feature of the iCloud in Germany,” Florian Müller reports for FOSS Patents. “Enforcement had been going on for more than 18 months, despite the patent having been held invalid again and again and again, and for a plurality of reasons, any single one of which would be sufficient to bust this patent. This is simply a zombie patent: a dead patent walking. But Google, which has been in total control of Motorola Mobility for the better part of the enforcement period, insisted on its right to inconvenience Apple’s Germany-based users.”
“Today the Oberlandesgericht Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court) provided me, for a small fee, a digital and anonymized copy of the order to stay enforcement,” Müller reports. “While the order became known only on Monday, it actually came down last Thursday. It states that security to the amount of 100 million euros ($132 million) is required to prevent further enforcement of the injunction (further below you can see it’s twice 50 million euros for technically two injunctions), an amount that is disproportionately high considering how blindingly obvious the invalidity of this patent is.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
German appeals court lifts Google’s bogus patent injunction over push email against Apple’s iCloud – September 3, 2013
It really seems screwy that Apple should have to post this bond for a patent that has been solidly ruled as invalid!
“Yes, we know you are not in the wrong. However, you must pay for the privlige of not being in the wrong!”
F’d up I tell ya. F’d up!
Apple’s bond would be paying for the EU to not enforce it (which still sounds weird) not to determine guilt or innocence, which has already been done in Apple’s favor.
Wrong. The bond is to ensure there is money put aside to compensate the other party in case this decision is turned later. It is not paying EU not to enforce anything.
Baloney. The law has spoken. This is blackmail in order to get the law to DO ITS JOB. Frack that!
It’s oddly comforting in a weird way to know our U.S. justice department isn’t the only f’kd up one on the planet. But the blatant stupidity still pisses me off.
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This is just a Bond. It ALL comes back to Apple after the patent case is truly over……i.e. after googles appeal is denied.
I wonder if Apple will get Bond + interest.
I believe from what I have been told that Apple can claim damages for the period it was enforced from Motorola as and when the action is concluded.
I think Microsoft just won $14million against Google/Motorola in a case that’s not too dissimilar.
Different case, different jurisdiction, different patents.
Baloney. There should be NO bond at all in any case of this kind. Google lost. The law has spoken. The outcome of an appeal has NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. Too bad if Google gets hurt of the 10th appeal finally overturns the injunction.
Hey law system: Do you do your job right the first time OR NOT? If you don’t, THAT’S YOUR PROBLEM! YOU PAY GOOGLE THE DAMAGES! Idiots.
I’m out with my scythe today, if you can’t tell. Death to the incompetent and irresponsible! 💀 And extra hugs to pandas and puppies. 🐼🐶
Are we convinced yet, people, of the enormous waste that is software patents?
No. But we’re convinced that Google and Motorola are complete a**holes.
Software patents aren’t the issue, the system that enforces them is.
Hey, please work for me since you will not need to be paid.
This is over a FRAND/SEP patent, not a design patent.
What is being wasted?
Stop using all google products – they are a lame ass company
complete a**holes is right Des
Google is not only evil about how they are pursuing a patent they already know to be dead, they are evil about BEING evil. They know that it is not only Apple they are hurting, but millions of Germans, just for the sake of it, not because they believe in it. Utterly devoid of anything positive or good.
Google is such a POS!
Ehem! Cough cough – pocket change – cough cough!
Google needs to cut this BS out. This patent trolling is doing no good for either parties.
It’s the Germans. What do you expect?
I smell a Google judicial rat.
The German bond was posted 3 seconds after Apple learned about it, paid from petty cash.
IP legal precedents favoring Apple continue to mount. They accumulate — slowly, yes, but inexorably — like grains of sand dropped one by one onto a pile. In time, the pile becomes unstable. Avalanches occur. Small at first, but increasingly large as the pile grows. The frequency and magnitude of “avalanches” appears random at first, yet is known to follow a beautiful mathematical pattern of many small avalanches, fewer larger ones, and ultimately The Big One. This is How Nature Works. The same process applies to a surprising number of natural settings/events; in fact, it is all around us. (See book with same title by Per Bek, a Danish Nobel-prize winning scientist.). Apple knows this. The process continues. There is no stopping it. The grains of sand accumulate. Small avalanches will lead to larger ones. The IP patent infringers will eventually be buried.
I agree, but pardon me if I sinker a bit. Sounds like the opening from a soap opera, ending with “These are the days of our lives…”
I’d say: To hell with it. Let the Germans suffer if their justice system is this idiotic.
It’s NOT Apple’s problem. They did their due diligence. Being blackmailed into getting the law to actually WORK is insane in the extreme. No Kafka for Apple, thank you. 😛