Newsbrief: Microsoft has received some good news in its defence against a Motorola Mobility lawsuit, as a U.S. court has stated that the Google subsidiary cannot enforce an Xbox 360 ban in Germany.
Motorola was granted an injunction against the distribution of various Microsoft products, including the Xbox 360, in Germany, with a German court ruling that Microsoft is infringing on Motorola's video coding and playback patents.
However, as reported by Bloomberg, a U.S. court has now said that the order by the lower German court was narrowly tailored, and that the existing contract between the two companies will instead be used to determine a royalty rate to be paid out.
An U.S. court can overrule the decision of a german court regarding a sales ban in germany? I wonder, what an U.S. judge would say, if a south korean court would decide, that Samsung must not pay $1 billion to Apple, because the order of the court was "narrowly tailored".
It can if the parent company issuing the suit is a US based company and there is a contract between the two companies enforcable in a US court. Motorola mobility is a US company and its a german subsitiary of that company that sued for the injunction. On top of that there seems to be a question on whether Motorola is licensing the patents to Microsoft at a fair rate which the original contract between the two of them requires.
The sales ban wasn't affecting the U.S., it affected germany. An U.S. court isn't able to decide over a sales ban in germany, just like an german court wouldn't be able to overrule a sales ban of Volkswagen cars in the U.S., even when the U.S. daughter of BMW would be suing Volkswagen in the states.
What happened is that while Motorola was getting the injunction against Microsoft in Germany, Microsoft was getting a meta-injunction against Motorola in the United States. So if Motorola enforces the injunction in Germany, they'll still be able to block imports (probably - the German court probably has the right to defer to the US court if they want, and could remove the injunction entirely), but they'll be in violation of US law.
The good news, then, is that US courts still don't have jurisdiction in Germany. The bad news is that multi-national corporate law is still an absolute farce that let corporations pit one government against another.
(Speaking of farce, Christian: South Korean courts actually did ban various Samsung products from South Korea for violating many of the same patents the US decision was about. They also banned various Apple products for violating Samsung's patents.)
What happened is that while Motorola was getting the injunction against Microsoft in Germany, Microsoft was getting a meta-injunction against Motorola in the United States. So if Motorola enforces the injunction in Germany, they'll still be able to block imports (probably - the German court probably has the right to defer to the US court if they want, and could remove the injunction entirely), but they'll be in violation of US law.
The good news, then, is that US courts still don't have jurisdiction in Germany. The bad news is that multi-national corporate law is still an absolute farce that let corporations pit one government against another.
(Speaking of farce, Christian: South Korean courts actually did ban various Samsung products from South Korea for violating many of the same patents the US decision was about. They also banned various Apple products for violating Samsung's patents.)
inb4 WWIII is caused by Microsoft and Apple.