Never mind: Microsoft tells German court it no longer seeks injunction on Motorola RAZR

On Thursday, during an appeals hearing at the Munich Higher Regional Court, Microsoft withdrew a request to have a preliminary injunction placed on the Motorola RAZR. Microsoft alleged that Motorola Mobility had infringed on its European Patent EP1193956 relating to "merging various request methods into a single unified user interface". After two hours of arguments by the Redmond based software stud's lead attorney, Dr. Markus Gampp, the request for the PI was withdrawn. That was the second consecutive time that Motorola Mobility, defended by Dr. Marcus Grosch, escaped a request for a preliminary injunction on one of its devices. A couple of weeks ago, the Mannheim Regional Court ruled in favor of the wholly owned Google subsidiary after Microsoft accused Motorola Mobility of infringing on a patent relating to radio interface.

Thursday's decision by the court was based on its appraisal of Microsoft's likely chances to prevail at trial and the lack of urgency required to get the court to grant the ban. Earlier Motorola phones had contained the same phone number selection method found on the Motorola RAZR and the court failed to buy Microsoft's argument that the Motorola RAZR was more aggressively marketed in the country than those earlier models were.

Motorola RAZR

The whole case seems moot at this point as Motorola Mobility is no longer selling any Android models in Germany. In fact, as we recently pointed out to you, the only handset available on Motorola Mobility's German website is the Motorola Gleam featurephone. That action was taken after Microsoft and Apple won injunctions against Motorola Mobility in Germany and in the states. The preliminary injunctions against Android devices in the U.S. and Germany cannot be enforced since they are related to a technical patent infringement as opposed to a design patent infringement. Both Apple and Microsoft have won permanent injunctions against certain Android models in Germany, which can be appealed, and a U.S. import ban from the ITC.

Next up for the firms involved is a FRAND obligations trial set to begin in Seattle on November 13th while two days later the Munich Higher Regional Court will determine if it can enforce one of the three permanent injunctions Microsoft had won against Motorola Mobility, while the ruling is being appealed. Considering the latter's decision not to currently offer any Android devices in the country, we wonder if the relentless action by Microsoft is the courtroom version of 'piling on'.