A court has ruled in favor of Apple in its patent infringement lawsuit against Motorola. The court has ruled that most of Motorola Mobility’s products actually infringe on Apple’s slide-to-unlock image patent.

Millions of consumers who use smart phones use the Apple patent when they perform gestures on the ‘unlock’ image, in order to unlock the device. Apple has won this round, the first time that the company has prevailed in any patent lawsuit against Motorola. Motorola has already announced that it plans to appeal the decision.

The decision was delivered by a judge in Munich. Motorola does not believe that the decision against it will have an impact on sales, because the patent only involves a few of the Motorola devices that are sold in Germany.

The decision is important to Motorola, even though it has a very small share of the German cell phone market. Google is in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility, and Google is right to take the judge’s decision very seriously. Motorola expects to gain market share in Germany as a result of this acquisition. Therefore, the ruling is being seen as bad news not just for Motorola, but also for Android and Google.

Patent infringement litigation is rife in the telecommunications and technology industries. California patent infringement lawyers have found that just about every major player in these industries is engaged in some kind of patent-related litigation.

It’s not just inside the United States that these companies have been battling it out in the courtroom. Germany has seen a spike in the number of such lawsuits being filed in its courts. Part of the reason for this is that Germany allows patent holders to apply for injunctive relief. Moreover, German courts move twice as fast as the ITC, and much quicker than federal and state courts in America.