iCloud push services could soon resume in Germany more than a year after they were killed after a high court stayed Motorola’s patent trial against Apple on Wednesday. Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court issued a press release that said both Apple and Google — which now owns Motorola — agreed to the stay, which has called into question the validity of Motorola’s patent.
Apple was forced to suspend iCloud push services in Germany in February 2012 after being found guilty of infringing a patent held by Motorola. The Cupertino company appealed the decision, but lost its case last April. Following the recent change in the trial, however, Apple could be free to start the service back up again.
The stay doesn’t automatically lift the ban against iCloud push services because the court is yet to give its verdict on the push notification patent, according to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller. But it’s said that the appeals court believes Motorola’s patent may be invalid anyway.
“Technically, the enforcement proceeding relating to the Mannheim court’s decision is separate from the appeal of the ruling on the merits,” explains Mueller. “But in this case the appeals court expressed fairly strong doubts about the validity of the patent at the hearing, and on this basis Apple can bring a new motion for a stay of the enforcement of last year’s injunction.”
Apple can now apply to have push services reinstated. Google can deny the request, but if it turns out the patent is invalid, then the search giant will owe Apple damages. There’s a good chance, then, that it’ll just agree to let Apple reinstate its service.
With that being the case, iCloud users in Germany could find that push notifications soon start working again.
Source: FOSS Patents
