Today a German court ruled that most of Motorola’s products infringe on Apple’s slide-to-unlock image patent with the only exception being the slide-the-circle gesture used in the Motorola XOOM. This ruling allows Apple to enforce a permanent injunction against the Motorola products found in violation. Motorola can still appeal the decision therefore Apple would be taking a very big risk enforcing such an injunction at this time. Should the ruling be overturned, Apple would have to reimburse Motorola for any lost sales due to the injunction. Regardless of Apple’s decision, one thing is for sure: Motorola will now have to make changes to their UI.

So what happens now? Well, most likely Motorola implements the slide-the-circle on all of its devices and everything is hunky-dory. As a matter of fact, many German news outlets are already reporting this to be the case. So if you live in Germany, expect changes to the way you unlock your Motorola device. Nothing major and really a simple solution that could have been worked out without the need of courts and high-priced lawyers. Oh well, c’est la vie.

• SourceFOSS Patents