The Mannheim Regional Court has ruled in Microsoft’s favor regarding the FAT patent. What is FAT? FAT stands for File Allocation Table, a legacy file system still widely used, mostly for backward compatibility. The German court has granted a request for a ban on all relevant devices, according to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents. Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, David Howard had this to say.

“Today’s decision, which follows similar rulings in the U.S. and Germany, is further proof that Motorola Mobility is broadly infringing Microsoft’s intellectual property. We will continue to enforce injunctions against Motorola Mobility products in those countries and hope they will join other Android device makers by taking a license to Microsoft’s patented inventions.”

Motorola will have to remove all infringing products from retail and Microsoft will be entitled to an undetermined amount in damages. However, in order to enforce the injunction, Microsoft will need to pay a €10 million bond. Microsoft says the injunction affects all Android devices that use FAT on internal storage, such as the Atrix, Razr and Razr Maxx. Microsoft further explains that the decision bolsters the injuntion it was awarded on May 24th.

“We already have an injunction against Motorola products in Germany as a result of a ruling on May 24, and today’s ruling serves to strengthen this injunction. In the long term, if Motorola wishes to sell products on the German market, it must either take a license or stop using the technology covered by our patents including the ones at issue in this week’s decisions.”

I have said this before and I will say it forever: Why can’t these companies just win with better products than the other? Probably a pipe dream, but one can hope! I mean, I understand protecting your property, but is there a point where it gets a little overboard? This poses another question: Why didn’t Motorola gain proper licensing? As the quote says “…it must either take a license…” So what’s the issue? Get permission and keep rockin’! Let us know what you think in the comments!

source: The Verge