科技英语新闻:Apple gets major setback in global patent war

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Apple on Friday suffered a major setback in its global patent war, as a German court ruled over its copyright infringement battle in favor of Motorola Mobility.

The German court ruled that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringe a Motorola patent and issued an injunction banning the import of iPhones and 3G-capable iPads into Germany.

The dispute, one of Apple's several patent lawsuits around the world, is over a Motorola patent essential to GPRS. Motorola has been negotiating with Apple over licensing terms and conditions since 2007, and it will continue its efforts to resolve its global patent dispute as soon as practicable, said Motorola Mobility in a statement on Friday.

"We're going to appeal the court's ruling right away. Holiday shoppers in Germany should have no problem finding the iPad or iPhone they want," an Apple spokesman told tech news site AllThingsD.

Apple is not too concerned about losing out in the Christmas shopping season as it has plenty of iPhones and iPads in Germany already, AllThingsD cited unidentified sources as saying.

The ruling is against Apple's European sales company and only impacts its products sold in Germany. The German court also ruled that Motorola is entitled to a damages award.

Apple can appeal the ruling to a higher court and request a stay of the injunction, according to a blog post of Florian Mueller, a U.S. patent expert who has been closely following patent lawsuits in the mobile industry.

Mueller said should Apple make the appeal but the court declines the stay, Motorola must post a 100 million euro (around 134 million U.S. dollars) bond before the court will enforce the injunction.

In August, Apple also filed a suit in Germany over the design of Motorola's tablet Xoom, which runs Google's Android system. But Apple did not make it clear whether it will seek to block the sales of Xoom in Europe.

Also on Friday, Samsung won an appeal from the Australian High Court overturning a previous Apple victory that effectively banned Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab in Australia.

Based on claims of infringing Apple's patents, the Cupertino, California-based tech giant has been seeking court order to block Samsung's Galaxy line of mobile devices around the world.

A German court issued an injunction in August, blocking Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets across all European Union members, except for the Netherlands.

On Thursday, Apple said it will appeal a San Jose, California judge's refusal to ban sales of Samsung 4G smartphones and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets in the United States.