The wireless patent scuffle between Motorola and Apple in Germany took a notable turn recently when a German court ruling went in favor of the Android smartphone manufacturer Motorola Mobility, which had claimed in its lawsuit that Apple had failed to license one of its wireless intellectual properties.

The legal battle between Motorola and Apple chiefly pertains to Motorola's patent related to a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system." This patent is licensed by Motorola to other companies on `fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory' (Frand) terms.

Since Apple makes use of the technology in question in its iPhones as well as 3G iPads, a court victory for Motorola might witness it forcing Apple to pull the mentioned feature out from its devices or stall the sales in German markets.

While Motorola has referred to the court verdict as a substantiation of the company's "efforts to enforce its patents against Apple's infringement," Apple has, on the other hand, stated that it plans to appeal the court's decision `right away."

Meanwhile, stressing that Motorola will "continue to take all necessary steps to protect our intellectual property," Motorola Mobility's Senior VP and general counsel Scott Offer said that his company was in talks with Apple has been offering it "reasonable licensing terms and conditions" since 2007, and will continue its attempts "to resolve our global patent dispute as soon as practicable."