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US Court Says Motorola Can't Enforce Microsoft Injunction In Germany
First time accepted submitter Chris453 writes "A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit cannot enforce a patent injunction that it obtained against Microsoft Corp in Germany, diminishing Google's leverage in the ongoing smartphone patent wars. Motorola won an injunction against Microsoft in May using their H.264 patents. Apparently the U.S. federal justices in California have worldwide jurisdiction over all court cases — Who knew? Maybe that is why Apple keeps winning lawsuits..."
You could try reading the article.
"At bottom, this case is a private dispute under Washington state contract law between two U.S. corporations," the court ruled.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
By this court's reasoning, if a family went on vacation in Germany for Octoberfest and dad gave his 14 yo son a beer to drink, then it's a Washington State parent giving alcohol to an underage Washington State child, and he would be subject to fines and jail under the drinking laws of Washington State.
No. It's more like father and mother get divorced in Washington state. As part of the custody agreement, the father agrees not to provide beer to their son. The father and son go to Germany and the father buys the son a beer. The Washington state divorce court declares him in violation of the Washington state custody agreement. It's not illegal; it's just a contract violation.
If Google and Microsoft have a contract in Washington state, then US courts will have jurisdiction over that contract. This isn't overturning the German decision. The German decision presumably says that Motorola Mobility has a patent and that Microsoft must license the patent from them. The US court decision apparently says that Google (which owns Motorola Mobility) has a licensing agreement with Microsoft. As a result of that licensing agreement, Microsoft has licensed this patent from Google. This is in fact a US contract dispute and should be decided under US law.
The confusing part here seems to be that there are two separate issues. One should be decided under German law. That's whether the patent applies and requires licensing. The other should be decided under US law. That's the question of whether the licensing agreement applies. Germany decided that the patent does apply and the US decided that the licensing agreement applies. This is confusing, but there's nothing wrong with it. Absent an international patent system, this is the way that these things will work.