Post 11 Google faces patent fire from Microsoft & Nokia ... in Germany

According to German lobbyist Florian Müllera's blog, FOSSPatents, Google now faces patent infringement rulings from both Microsoft and Nokia on its android apps Google Play and Google Map. Mueller pointed out that "the more difficult it is for innovators to obtain timely patent infringement rulings and meaningful remedies in U.S. courts, the more popular and relevant certain German courts, especially the ones in Mannheim and Munich, become."

The cases involving Google and Microsoft started with Google-owned Motorola Mobility suing Microsoft. During the court investigation, Microsoft was managed to counter Motorola Mobility with its own sue, in which the target is the android app - Google Maps' infringement of patent EP0845124 on a "computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor".

On the other hand, Nokia is suing HTC in Mannheim over its distribution of the Google Play app and content store client. HTC, as a major android-platform smartphone manufacturer, are attacked by its pre-loaded Google Play app, which is claiming to infringe patent EP0812120 on a "method for using services offered by a telecommunication network, a telecommunication system and a terminal for it".

While there are many patent lawsuits happening everyday in the United States, it's not surprise that the "patent war" will spread to any major countries with patent laws. Interestingly, the lawsuits in Germany seemed to be more aggressive in my opinion. As you may know, Google Play and Google Map are the core android apps that every android-platform phones are pre-loaded with. It means these two lawsuits directly firing against every android phone on the planet. While patent laws, in theory, are very similar, it's not surprise that court decisions would vary among courts in different locations/countries. It's interesting to see how these two cases develop in Germany, and how Google, which headquartered in the US, will response to it.

Sources:
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/google-faces-critical-week-in-german.html