Legal Battles

Microsoft Bans Droids In Germany

July 27, 2012

Just when you thought the patent wars couldn’t get any more painful in Europe, they did. Microsoft has recently won a lawsuit against Motorola Mobility that allows Microsoft to ban part of the Motorola ‘Droid’ lineup within Germany. Motorola’s Android devices will be banned because they are violating a FAT storage patent, which Microsoft owns. If you’re curious, we’ve put the list of affected phones below:

Atrix
Backflip
Bravo
Charm
Cliq
Cliq 2
Cliq XT
Defy
Devour
Droid 2
Droid 2 Global
Droid Pro
Droid X
Droid X2
Flipout
Flipside
Spice
Xoom

And while most of the affected devices are outdated, we can expect Motorola to fight back against this ban soon. The ban goes into effect on Wednesday. Dan Howard, a corporate vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, had this to say about the ban:

Today’s decision, which follows similar rulings in the U.S. and Germany, is further proof that Motorola Mobility is broadly infringing Microsoft’s intellectual property. We will continue to enforce injunctions against Motorola Mobility products in those countries and hope they will join other Android device makers by taking a license to Microsoft’s patented inventions

Do you agree with Microsoft’s banning of Motorola devices in Germany because of a simple patent like FAT? Let us know in the comments.

Source: @FOSSpatents (Twitter) via Engadget Mobile, Wireless and Mobile News
Image Credit: gillyberlin