In Germany the firm represented Motorola Mobility in both infringement and nullity proceedings relating to a Microsoft patent describing a middleware software of the OS of a mobile device which takes care of all processing steps involved with sending and receiving overly long messages.
In September 2011, Microsoft filed infringement actions against Motorola entities with the District Court Munich I asserting infringement of this patent by Motorola phones and tablets running the Android OS. Motorola filed a nullity action with the German Federal Patent Court in order to get the patent revoked. The District Court Munich I entered an injunction against Motorola in May 2012. Microsoft immediately enforced the injunctive relief order.
In February 2014, Microsoft filed preliminary injunction motions with the District Court Munich I arguing infringement of a modified version of Motorola’s devices. In May 2014, in a hearing before the Federal Patent Court, the firm convinced the court that the patent had to be revoked in its entirety because it was obvious over the prior art. Due to revocation of the patent by the Federal Patent Court, Microsoft withdrew its preliminary injunction motions. The decision of the Federal Patent Court is subject to appeal.