Germany: The German Federal Patent Court has invalidated a Microsoft mapping patent because it lacked an inventive step. The company had alleged that Motorola Mobility and Google infringed the patent in the Google Maps app. “The court invalidated the patent within the borders of Germany on Thursday because it lacked an inventive step,” said Ariane Mittenberger-Huber, General Federal Patent Court spokeswoman.
Microsoft sued Motorola Mobility and Google in the Regional Court of Munich in October 2011, alleging it infringed on a patent that describes a method of obtaining a map from one database, resource information such as shop locations from a second database, and overlaying the two sets of data. Google Maps, which Motorola installed on its Android phones, uses a technique like this, according to a company. Motorola Mobility was initially the only target in that case, but Microsoft added Google because Motorola maintained that it lacked sufficient information about actions occurring on Google's servers.
Source: PC Advisor
