There's no stopping the legal patent battles-- the German Mannheim Regional Court decides against Microsoft in a set of 4 lawsuits against Motorola, FOSS patents reports.
The decision awards Motorola with an injunction against the distribution of Windows 7, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and the Xbox 360 console in Germany... an injunction the courts cannot currently enforce, as US courts issued a ruling back in April preventing Motorola from enforcing sales bans in Germany for the near future.
This particular legal battle involves patents covering the H.264 video codec. Motorola demands huge royalties (reaching $4 billion annually according to "conservative" estimates), despite an obligation to make licenses to such patents available under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
The EC is already investigating Motorola over claims of violation of EU antitrust laws (over the use of 2G, 3G, wifi and H.264 patents), and EU regulators should be looking at the case with Microsoft very closely.
Microsoft will be appealing against the decision of the German courts-- and is pulling European distribution operations from Germany to the Netherlands as a direct result of such legal disputes.
Go FRAND Abuse: German Court Hands Motorola Injunction Against Microsoft (FOSS Patents)