Apple wins preliminary sales ban against Motorola devices in Germany

Hot on the heels of their big victory against Samsung here in the United States, Apple’s legal team has just won another important decision against Motorola in Munich, German.

The German court has just awarded the Cupertino company a preliminary sales ban against Motorola’s phones and tablets in the country, ruling that they infringe on Apple’s patents…

PCWorld has the scoop:

“Apple won a preliminary sales ban on Motorola phones and tablets in Germany on Thursday when the regional court of Munich ruled that Motorola infringes on a touchscreen-related patent, a spokeswoman for the court said.

Apple sued Google-owned Motorola Mobility for infringing on its “list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touchscreen display” patent, said Stefanie Ruhwinkel, spokeswoman for the Munich court. The patent is also known as the “overscroll bounce” or “rubber band” patent and allows pages, documents or photos on touchscreen devices to scroll past their boundaries and bounce back when users release their fingers from the screen.”

The list of infringing devices includes the Motorola Milestone XT720, the Motorola DEFY, the Motorola Atrix and the Motorola XOOM. As you know, all of these use Google’s Android OS.

In addition to the sales ban, Apple is also asking Motorola to disclose its sales figures in Germany, so it can calculate damages, and — get this — it’s asking that unsold devices be destroyed.

Of course, today’s ruling isn’t final. And even it was, it seems like Motorola could push out a workaround to the patent via a software update. But make no mistake, this is still a big win for Apple.

We’re just wondering what Google has to say about all of this.