Apple wins injunction against Motorola in Germany because of photo management
Sigh.
Today, Apple won an injunction against Motorola devices in Germany. The reason for the injunction? Well, as the Munich I Regional Court explains, it’s due to Motorola’s devices that violate the patent on “portable electronic device[s] for photo management.”
Essentially, Apple has a patent on a zoomed in picture gallery view. The German Court ruled that Motorola’s devices infringed on this patent, and as a result have set the injunction in place.
Like every other company that has come under Apple’s wrath, Motorola does have a workaround already in the pipeline. Here’s an official statement from Motorola:
“Today’s ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a ‘zoomed in’ mode on mobile devices. We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a ‘zoomed out’ mode does not infringe on this patent. We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience.”
Even though I know I’m gonna get a bunch of junk for saying this, I’m going to anyway: this is a very good thing. Personally, I don’t want the same exact gallery app on every device. I want differentiation, and I believe that this is the first step in the right direction. After all, Motorola has already changed it.
[FOSS Patents]
