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]
