The District Court of Munich (Landgericht München) handed down a ruling in March of this year in favor of Apple’s European Patent No. 2059868 whose title is portable electronic device for photo management (also known as the photo gallery page-flipping patent) , in which users use a swiping gesture to move to the next picture in the photo gallery.
The Court held that Motorola smartphones using such technology came within the scope of protection of the aforementioned Apple patent and constituted, therefore, an infringement thereof.
Although Motorola might be able to sell a further adaptation of such software in its smartphones and tablets in Germany, this would entail it using a system – such as the use of arrows or buttons – which would be less convenient for users than the exclusively gesture-based solution adopted by Apple for the display of photos in its smartphones (the more visual elements are present on a smartphone screen, the less user-friendly the viewing of photographs becomes).
In case of breaches of the Court order, Apple would be entitled to proceed to the destruction of the contested devices.
