Edible Apple

Apple and Motorola are engaged in quite the back and forth legal battle over in Germany these days. Not too long after a German Court ruled that Motorola’s smartphones infringed upon Apple’s “slide to unlock” patent, Apple has been forced to make some changes to its iCloud offering in Germany as a result of potentially infringing upon Motorola’s patents.

Apple last week quietly informed German customers that push email on both MobileMe and iCloud was going to be disabled.

Due to recent patent litigation by Motorola Mobility, iCloud and MobileMe users are currently unable to have iCloud and MobileMe email pushed to their iOS devices while located within the borders of Germany.

Affected customers will still receive iCloud and MobileMe email, but new messages will be downloaded to their devices when the Mail app is opened, or when their device periodically fetches new messages as configured in iOS Settings. Push email service on desktop computers, laptop computers, and the web is unaffected, as is service from other providers such as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

Highlighting the nuanced and complex nature of patent litigation, the push feature of the aformentioned services will still work with regards to contacts and other push items.

iPhone users in Germany who love themselves some push email can, for the time being, set up their Mail accounts to automatically check for new email rather frequently to closely mimic push email service.

It’s worth pointing out that Apple isn’t going down without a fight, noting in its support document that it believes Motorola’s patents at issue to be invalid. Apple is currently appealing the decision.

via Apple