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Motorola Ordered To Recall Android Phones and Tablets In Germany

Posted by Soulskill on from the continuing-to-go-thermonuclear dept.

puddingebola sends word of a German court decision yesterday which found that Google's Motorola Mobility must recall all of its Android tablets and phones that infringe on Apple's patent for "rubber-band" scrolling. From the Guardian: "The dramatic decision, the latest in an escalating war between Apple and the smartphone and set-top box company MMI, follows earlier cases in which Apple had to disable automatic "push" delivery of email to its iPhone and iPads after MMI won a separate patent fight in Germany. The recall will not take effect immediately because Apple will have to request a ban on specific products and provide a €25m (£20m) bond, while MMI can appeal. However, the court indicated that it was unlikely that an appeal against the validity of the patent would succeed. MMI, with Google's backing, is expected to continue the appeal. The court also ruled that MMI owed Apple damages for past infringement."

13 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Stop supporting APPLE!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Get a clue people. Apple just wants to corner the market and stop consumers of having choices, that are cheaper than theirs. WAKE UP STUPID PEOPLE!...

    Stop buying Apple products...

    1. Re:Stop supporting APPLE!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This isn't an Apple problem, this is a patent problem.

      Google and Motorolla would enforce this patent on Apple if they happened to own it. They already enforced another equally trivial patent on push email, so that Apple devices can't use it in Germany.

      These sorts of concepts are NOT novel and unique and should NOT be patented.

      To use a car analogy, It's like going back in time 100 years and patenting "wheels made of rubber" and "automobiles that exhaust fumes to the air" and "the use of heating elements to warm a car interior" etc etc etc.

      Not practical and counter to innovation.

      Sad sad sad.

    2. Re:Stop supporting APPLE!! by Nerdfest · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Look at the patent is question. It's an idea, not an implementation. I don't imagine Motorola copied Apple's code to implement it. This is the problem with software patents. Even if Motorola's implementation is vastly more efficient ... still 'infringing'.

    3. Re:Stop supporting APPLE!! by N0Man74 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is an idea. Patents aren't supposed to cover the result, but rather the implementation or the process of achieving that result. That process should be more specific than "with a smart phone".

    4. Re:Stop supporting APPLE!! by makomk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, the user interface element in question did exist before Apple "invented" it, it's just that it hadn't been used on touchscreen phones or tablets yet because they didn't actually exist (and neither did the technology required to make them). In fact, all of the iPhone and iPod user interface elements Apple has patents on were originally invented by someone else.

    5. Re:Stop supporting APPLE!! by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Informative

      Google and Motorolla would enforce this patent on Apple if they happened to own it. They already enforced another equally trivial patent on push email, so that Apple devices can't use it in Germany.

      Except that Google and Motorola have only started to enforce their patents against Apple after Apple started to sue every Android manufacturer in sight.

  2. Sense? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So they are forced to recall their devices because of a GUI animation effect? How the hell is that proportionate? Was that a major advertised feature or something?

    1. Re:Sense? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The judge probably has no clue the "stolen" feature copied from Apple can be disabled with a software update.

      You are telling me that Motorola could have avoided the decision long before the judge began deliberation by simply updating the software? And that that inaction makes Motorola's violation of the patent less of an issue?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  3. Bounce is obvious to any engineer by Solandri · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Any engineer worth his salt was taught about the time response of second order linear systems - spring, mass, damper. The scroll bounce is just the transient response of such a system to a step function when tuned to be slightly underdamped (light blue line in the figure).

    It's obvious as hell and the only reason I can fathom why it's being upheld is because its merits are being judged by people who are clueless about math or engineering. This is as bad as the XOR cursor patent, which was also a patent on the graphical representation of a function widely known and commonly used in the respective industry.

    1. Re:Bounce is obvious to any engineer by mclaincausey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I am not an IP advocate, but I'm not sure that logic applies. Just because something is obvious in the physical domain, applying it to a control on a device isn't also obvious necessarily... it's not a skeumorphism for a spring or something, for example, which might make this connection less tenuous. Not defending the IP or IP-based attack, just don't necessarily trust your rationale for saying it's an obvious invention.

      --
      (%i1) factor(777353);
      (%o1) 777353
  4. Too much by hawguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Geeze, first I thought I had to buy Samsung products to support them in their fight against Apple, now I have to buy MMI products too? I'm going to go broke trying to support companies that anger Apple. Maybe it's cheaper and easier to just go to the dark side and buy an iPhone and move into the Apple Ecosystem.

  5. IP is clearly killing healthy gadget evolution by klek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All these microscopic patents on tiny "innovations" are preventing the positive evolution of excellent devices. Our devices should be getting better (easier to use, more capable, etc) by using the earlier innovations that truly work better. Yet these copyright battles force companies to create clunky workarounds... Windows GUI is a great example. Why can't we find a way to credit the creator, and still make the best and widespread use of the innovation? Gaah!

  6. George Selden by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    To use a car analogy, It's like going back in time 100 years and patenting [...] "automobiles that exhaust fumes to the air"

    Except George Selden patented exactly that.