Apple Inc. (AAPL) Sues Motorola in Europe Over Xoom Android Tablet Design

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) recently won a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. Now, with that in the past, Apple Inc. is suing Motorola over their XOOM tablet in Europe over the same design infringement claims that they previously toted.

The latest suit was mentioned in Apple’s complaint against Samsung and later discovered by FOSS Patents. Apple filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola XOOM. However, it’s worth noting that the filing doesn’t state whether it includes a request for preliminary injunction.

There isn’t a clear statutory limit, but German lawyers usually discourage such motions unless they are filed within one month of finding out about an infringement. It’s possible to get permanent injunctions even against older products, but for preliminary ones there must be a particular sense of urgency. It’s possible that Apple has also been aware of the Xoom for too long to file for a preliminary injunction at this stage.

Apple is potentially making it difficult for Android smartphone manufactures to sell their devices as patent infringement, if proven, could result in high licensing fees.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out between Apple and Motorola.

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