Thanks to a preliminary injunction issued Friday, Apple is prohibited from selling any mobile devices in Germany that infringe on two Motorola patents related to wireless technology, according to a report.
The district court in Mannheim, Germany entered a default judgment for Motorola after Apple failed to show up in court, IDG News reported, citing a spokesman at the Landgericht Mannheim.
The court ruling didn't specify the name of the Apple products, but it's possible that the iPhone and iPad are impacted.
However, a spokesman for Apple told IDG News via email that the ruling "is a procedural issue and has nothing to do with the merits of the case."
"It does not affect our ability to sell products or do business in Germany at this time," the spokesman added.
But Florian Mueller, a blogger covering patent issues, disagreed that the ruling is no big deal.
"If this decision is barely worth the paper it's printed on for the next three months, but Apple can get a decision on the merits within two months, then there's no business impact. It's still not "totally symbolic" because a default judgment does indicate that someone is somehow struggling with his defense in such a case – otherwise one answers a complaint in time, which is what the vast majority of defendants do," Mueller wrote. "But in the scenario I described, it wouldn't reduce Apple's revenues in the German market, provided that a decision on the merits is handed down in time and works out in Apple's favor."
A spokesperson for Motorola Mobility indicated that the company hopes to reach an agreement and put the litigation to bed.
"We will continue to assert ourselves in the protection of these assets, while also ensuring that our technologies are widely available to end users. We hope that we are able to resolve this matter, so we can focus on creating great innovations that benefit the industry," Motorola spokesperson Kristin Huguet told CNET in a statement.
