Apple has been forced to disable push e-mail delivery for iCloud and MobileMe users in Germany this week. The move is thanks to a recent injunction awarded to Motorola as part of the ongoing patent dispute between the two smartphone makers. Apple is working on an appeal to the injunction ruling, but in the meantime, iPhone users in Germany will have to set their devices to check for e-mail periodically or manually.
The patent at issue relates to older pager designs, but Motorola was able to convince a German court that it applied to Apple's implementation of push e-mail that syncs across devices via iCloud. The injunction went into effect on Thursday of this week, requiring Apple to disable push e-mail syncing in Germany.
It's worth noting that Motorola's pager syncing patent isn't related to 3G wireless standards, so the injunction can't be overturned by a FRAND licensing defense. In other words, Motorola isn't legally required to license this patent for fair, reasonable, and non-dicriminatory terms. Motorola's use of such "standards essential" patents in lawsuits has been a bone of contention with Apple and now Microsoft, both of which are raising complaints with the European Commission. In this particular case, however, Apple's only hope is that the patent is ruled invalid.
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