German court finds Microsoft map patent invalid
The Federal Patent Court of Germany has decided that the German part of Microsoft’s European Patent EP0845124, which covers a computer system for identifying local resources in a map, is invalid due to lack of inventive step.
Microsoft has asserted the same patent against Google Maps and Motorola Mobility’s Android-based devices.
In Germany the validity of a patent and whether it has been infringed are decided in two different courts. The infringement case had been stayed to await this decision on the patent’s validity.
Writing in the Foss Patents blog, Germany-based patent consultant Florian Müller said that based on the February 27 decision there will not be an infringement trial until after the appeal, which Microsoft’s counsel has already announced it will file.
Hosea Haag, a patent attorney from Ampersand in Munich, said that although the proceedings in the Federal Patent Court only regard the German part of the European Patent, decisions made in the German or UK jurisdictions usually have a significant impact on all other national parts if they are tried in court.
He said he wasn’t surprised by the ruling: “In the infringement proceedings, the oral hearing was postponed with Microsoft’s consent until after the hearing in the nullity suit.
“This may be an indication that Microsoft, perhaps due to a preliminary opinion from the Federal Patent Court, expected this decision too. Also that Microsoft’s counsel already announced that Microsoft will appeal the day after the decision is an indication that Microsoft was prepared,” he said.
The infringement case will not be restarted before the appeal is finally decided, he added, which could “easily take more than a year”.
“It would be a very quick appeal if it were finalised before the patent expires,” he said.
Statistically speaking, the reversal rate of Federal Patent Court decisions is very high – more than 40 percent in nullity cases, provided that appeals are filed and adjudicated, Müller said.
“In all of the smartphone-related patent disputes between major players that I watch, not a single patent has survived a Federal Patent Court hearing in its granted form. Most of them were invalidated entirely; others were narrowed,” he continued.
A spokesperson for Microsoft told WIPR: “This single patent makes up a small fraction of our portfolio. Today’s decision has no impact on our business or the cases we’ve already won against Google in Germany.”
Motorola Mobility did not respond to a request for comment.
