A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that Google's Motorola Mobility
unit cannot enforce a patent injunction that it obtained against
Microsoft in Germany.
The injunction would have barred Microsoft from "offering,
marketing, using or importing or possessing" in Germany some
products including the Xbox 360 and certain Windows software.
Microsoft sued Motorola in the United States in 2010, and
Motorola then filed a lawsuit in Germany.
After a court in Mannheim issued the sales ban, U.S. District Judge
James Robart in Seattle granted Microsoft's request to put the
German order on hold earlier this year. According to Robart, the
ruling would remain in effect until he could determine whether
Motorola could appropriately seek a sales ban based on its standard
essential patents.
In its ruling on Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco upheld Robart's order.