Last month, there were reports that Motorola was going after Apple with a lawsuit claiming patent infringement. Since then, German courts have ruled twice in the favor of Motorola, but the company suffered a minor defeat today when the court shot down a third patent case.

Judge Andreas Voss, the presiding judge on the patent lawsuit case, said Monday that Motorola Mobility didn’t show that Apple was violating the particular patent involved in this case, and so the judge came to the decision to reject the lawsuit.

Here’s more information on the patent in question, courtesy of Engadget’s report:

The patent in question, EP1053613, is considered essential to the 3G/UMTS wireless standard and, more specifically, pertains to a “method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access [CDMA] signal.”

Motorola may have lost this battle, but the company does have two wins under its belt and there are still pending cases that need to be addressed before either side come out of the patent lawsuit war victorious.

Neither Motorola nor Apple have responded to requests for comment as of writing.

Motorola loses latest patent lawsuit case against Apple is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt RED recently came under fire for the aggressive, strong-arming, borderline blackmailing tactics employed by a firm it hired to go after pirates of their game. The developer received so much flak, in fact, that the developer ultimately backed down and “ceased” pursuing pirates.

The practice of tracing IPs in an attempt to catch pirates in the act, and then subsequently demanding the alleged pirates pay the developer cash for fear of having to pay even more, is unfortunately not an uncommon one–and it appears that CD Projekt RED isn’t the only company in the gaming industry doing it.

A report from TorrentFreak points the finger at publishing giants Atari, Ubisoft, Codemasters, Square Enix and many others, claiming that each publisher/developer has either directly or indirectly gone after alleged pirates in Germany demanding money, lest the company takes them to court.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun rounded up the games publishers/developers that TorrentFreak alleges have  gone after pirates for, and they include:

Atari’s Alone In The Dark, Test Drive Unlimited, and Test Drive Unlimited 2; Techland’s Dead Island and Nail’d; Daedalic’s (and in turn LucasArts’) Euro distribution of Tales Of Monkey Island; Square’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause 2; Koch’s distribution of Techland games and Ubisoft’s Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Agrar Simulator 2011, as well as both Painkillers; Codies’ Operation Flashpoint: Red River and DiRT 3; Kalypso’s Airline Tycoon 2, Tropico 3 and 4; dtp’s Cities XL 2012; Aerosoft’s City Bus Simulator, Airbus X; and many others.

You can read more on the matter over at TorrentFreak (here), or at Rock, Paper Shotgun (here).

Atari, Ubisoft and more going after German pirates is a post from: The Inquisitr

Germany doesn’t appear to be engulfed in the type of economic woes being experienced in Greece, Italy, France, the United States and much of the rest of the world, in fact Germany unemployment rates were announced this week and they have hit an all-time low since the reunification of the country.

According to reports only 6.8% of German citizens are out of work, thanks in large part to a huge number of exports to China and an unseasonable warm time of year which has allowed German construction company’s to keep working with record profits in hand.

The Chief of the government’s labor agency is both proud and skeptical of the countries unemployment rate, telling the New York Times:

 ”German unemployment mastered the dual impact of the debt crisis and weakening economic growth in 2011, but these risks remain, accompanying us as we enter the new year.”

In fact the jobless rate is so low in the country that nearly half a million jobs have yet to be filled.

According to Bloomberg:

“The number of people out of work fell a seasonally adjusted 22,000 to 2.89 million, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. Economists forecast a decline of 10,000, the median of 20 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed. The adjusted jobless rate dropped to 6.8 percent.”

The unemployment rate was helped along by some of the countries biggest and most well known company’s including Audi AG which will add 1,200 new jobs in 2012 along with Airbus SAS which makes the A380 superjumbo jet in Hamburg, Germany. Airbus says they will hire 4,000 more workers in 2012.

In fact in Hamburg alone 42 percent of large workforce suppliers said they would increasing hiring in 2012.

Are you surprised to learn that the German economy has went nearly unaffected during a near global meltdown of the financial markets over the last three years?

Unemployment At All-Time Low In Germany, Company’s Plan To Add Thousands Of Jobs is a post from: The Inquisitr

As you may recall, back in September Apple successfully petitioned a German court to block the sale of the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 on the grounds that the tablet infringed on patents held by Apple – basically, Apple says that Samsung copied the iPad.

The victory in Apple’s global patent war against Samsung seems to have been short-lived, at least as far as the Germany battleground goes. After the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was blocked in Germany, Samsung quickly moved to roll out a non-patent-infringing version, the Galaxy Tab 10.1N.

Apple insisted that the “new” tablet still infringed on their patents, and once again took the matter to German courts to block the sale of the newer version – but it appears that they lost. On Thursday, a judge rejected Apple’s claims, issuing a preliminary ruling that the new Galaxy Tab 10.1N no longer infringes on Apple’s intellectual property.

“According to the court’s assessment, the defendant has moved away sufficiently from the legally protected design,” Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said in court on Thursday (via Reuters).

Again, the ruling in Germany is only preliminary, so Samsung will have to wait until the final verdict, which is expected to happen February 9, before they start celebrating. Still, one might imagine that Samsung can’t help but be excited right about now, especially after their recent victory over Apple in Australia.

Source: Reuters

Samsung wins a (preliminary) victory over Apple in Germany is a post from: The Inquisitr

Germany’s finance ministry revealed that an accountancy error has cost the country 55.5 billion euros ($78.7 billion). Because of the discovery, the country is now richer by the same amount.

The error was discovered at the bad bank of nationalized mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE), Reuters reports.

The finance ministry said:

“Apparently it was due to sums incorrectly entered twice.”

The ministry welcomed the news which should mean a further reduction of the country’s debt. The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) were surprised at the extent of the error and blamed the government as responsible.

SPD leader Thomas Oppermann, in bashing the Germany government, said:

“This is not a sum that the Swabian housewife hides in a biscuit tin and forgets. To overlook such a sum is completely irresponsible. HRE’s bad bank is a state-owned bank for which (Finance Minister) Wolfgang Schaeuble is responsible. He is responsible for the bank being managed and supervised in an orderly way, and this clearly was not the case.”

Though the discovery will surely help a dampened economy, we cannot help but agree that an enormous error caused by “sums incorrectly entered twice” is really irresponsible.

Germany is 55 Billion Euros Richer After Accountancy Error is a post from: The Inquisitr

Two German hikers who went missing three weeks ago while hiking through the Hindu Kush Mountains were found shot to death according to the regions police general.

After the hikers were missing for several weeks rescuers headed out from the paths main road and walked for four-hours to find the two missing men.

According to the official police report both men were found with bullet wounds in their chest, although the time of death is not yet known. The local coroners office will have to wait until tomorrow to examine the bodies which could not be moved under the cover of darkness.

The men were found wrapped inside cloth sacks and were hidden under a large boulder approximately 2.5 miles from the south end of the Salang Pass.

The men began their hike from the Salang Pass on August 19 and according to officials the area is not controlled by Taliban members, in fact the only people known to inhabit the area are a group of nomadic shepherds who live in tents and generally cause little trouble.

More information will follow the official autopsy.

Missing German Hikers Found Shot To Death In Hindu Kush Mountains is a post from: The Inquisitr

After 18 years first person shooter Doom had been removed from Germany’s controlled titles list, a designation that made the game only available for sale at “adult only” stores in the country.

ID Software announced on Thursday that the game had been removed from the list after parent company Bethesda managed to convince the Germany Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (Bundesprufstelle) that the pixelated violence portrayed in the game poses no threat to young German gamers.

As part of their argument the company pointed out that current FPS titles are far more violent and offer more realistic type blood and gore.

Speaking to the BBC Bundesprufstelle officials said their decision wasn’t based solely on graphical merits, but also:

“Drastic portrayals of violence directed against human or human-like beings”. It added, “If the game then does not contain any real alternative scenes which might on the whole ‘neutralise’ the violent parts, then the game is likely to be found to have a harmful effect on minors.”

In the end the group decided that that game was a title of “mainly historic interest” which was unlikely to be played by children.

Basically German officials decided that Doom equated to an old piece of furniture in an antiques store and we all know how much kids hate antique shopping.

Germany has thought about banning all violent video games, which could make this whole point moot, but only time can tell.

Do you think games like Doom will be played by children in Germany or will they pass for more modern options.

Doom Game Ban Lifted In Germany After 18 Years is a post from: The Inquisitr

Neo-Nazi Rock Fans In Germany Get Tricked By Word Changing T-Shirts is a post from: The Inquisitr

A deadly E. coli outbreak in Europe that has killed 16 so far seems to be getting worse. The majority of the fatalities have occurred in Germany but the outbreak itself has affected more than 1,000 throughout Europe.

Germany’s national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said 373 people were sick with the most serious complication stemming from the outbreak – hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS. A spokesman for the agency, Susanne Glasmacher, said another 796 people had been affected by another form of the bacteria – enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, or EHEC – making a total of more than 1,150 people infected with that particular strain.

Symptoms of diseases caused by EHEC include abdominal cramps and diarrhea – sometimes bloody – and fever and vomiting.

Last week Germany reported that cucumbers grown in southern Spain, one of Europe’s biggest breadbaskets, were contaminated. Spain was quick to respond in defending themselves and argued that substantial evidence placing the direct blame on them was impossible to pinpoint. According to their argument, the cucumbers (even if from Spanish origin) could have been contaminated anywhere along the supply and handling chain.

The big question is whether or not Americans need to worry about an outbreak in the U.S?

E. coli Death Toll Rises: Cucumbers at Blame? is a post from: The Inquisitr

PainStation is essentially a version of Pong gone bad. Or good, depending on your outlook.

This sadist’s interpretation of Pong expands on its classic predecessor by adding real pain to the formula. Miss a ball while playing and you are instantly subjected to one of three physical penalties: heat, electric shock or whipping, with the punishment decided by which symbol the missed ball hits. Furthermore, this thing actually causes pain: see the picture below (or the gallery of injuries at the PainStation site) if you don’t believe it.

PainStation is the work of German artists Tilman Reiff and Volker Morawe, and is currently on display at the Computerspielemuseum in Berlin, as part of a huge games exhibition I really want to attend.

Also, this thing might be kind of old. Actually, it definitely is. It was built in 2001. Sorry about that, but I only just saw it, and wanted to share.

[Via PainStation]

The PainStation is Pong meets S&M is a post from: The Inquisitr

Germany will soon be indulging in its third favorite pastime, after munching bratwurst and thrashing England in World Cups – overbearing videogame censorship! Next up on the cutting-room floor is Call of Duty: Black Ops, the latest entry in Activision’s phenomenally popular Call of Duty franchise.

According to developer Treyarch, German gamers will have their delicate eyes protected from the following:

- A scene where an enemy is shot in slow motion with copious amounts of gore has been toned down for the German release.
- A torture scene involving a prisoner has been completely eliminated from the German version.
- No explosions that lead to limb loss.
- Removal of what Germany deems ‘anti-constitutional symbols’.

I’d count that as fairly heavy-handed censorship – grown adults can, after all, judge what they wish to see on a screen – but I’ve saved the best until last: apparently, the track ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ by Mick Jagger will be excluded, because it directly references World War Two.

That’s fine and all, but the song can be legally played in its entirety on German radio! I’m not saying my enjoyment of Black Ops would be greatly diminished by a lack of Jagger, but if there’s ever any doubt that videogames get a raw deal compared to other mediums in Germany …

[Via CODFeed]

Germany censoring the hell out of Call of Duty: Black Ops is a post from: The Inquisitr

On Wednesday, Nintendo has promised to spill the beans on the Nintendo 3DS – namely, when we can get it, and what it will cost.

For Nintendo, telling us when they’ll announce something as big as this – an announcement of an announcement, if you will – is a nice way of building hype. That is … until a trashy German newspaper comes along and blurts out your secrets.

That’s right: according to today’s edition of Bild, the Nintendo 3DS will launch on November 11 in Japan, and in the first quarter of 2011 in Europe. No U.S. details were revealed, but Bild did claim the device will cost €200, about $270 at current exchange rates. If that figure is right, I’d actually expect a $200 price point in the States; game hardware often sells on a €1 = $1 basis.

Bild also says Mario Kart 3D, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle will be launch games. That’s, er, a heck of a launch line-up.

Of course, whether you actually believe the paper is another matter. That said, it has a good record at this kind of thing. Nintendo Everything points out that Bild caught wind of the Wii two days before it was announced, so who knows? What I do know is that Nintendo needs to plug all these leaks in its PR division fo’ real; when was the last time a big Nintendo hardware announcement didn’t get leaked early?

[NeoGAF, via Nintendo Everything]

[RUMOR] German newspaper gives away Nintendo 3DS launch date, price? is a post from: The Inquisitr

But soccer isn’t fair. Soccer isn’t about correct decisions, if it were we’d see a lot more penalty kicks in every match. Soccer is about human decisions and human feelings. If you want fairness and video technology, go play FIFA Soccer 2010 or American Football instead.

Soccer is a drama based on human feelings and quick decisions. That is the charm of watching soccer. If a team get their goal falsely overruled it changes the game instantly. Giving it even more excitement, thrill and tensions. If the game has to be stopped because someone claims the ball was in the net, we’ll have these tedious American circumstances where the game is stopped to check something on a screen. This ruins the players concentration, the flow of the game and the overall viewing experience.

I have a better idea. In profesional handball the ball has a small chip that activates a vibrator in the referee’s wrist watch, when the ball has passed the goal line. It’s similar to the technology in the assistant referee’s flag in soccer. They activate a vibrator around the referee’s arm when they push a button on the flag.

I think that solution is much better than an extra referee behind each goal or video technology mounted on goals.

I’m sure Mexico are a bit upset about Tevez’s off-side goal too. This is just as bad as not seeing a goal. Would you want the referee to stop the game everytime that happens too?

(I’m a soccer referee and assistant referee myself, so I know a little about soccer)

Forget About Video Technology In Soccer is a post from: The Inquisitr

This, as they say, is where s**t gets real. Spain and Chile today became the final two teams to make it through the group phase of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, despite Chile losing to Spain in the last group game. David Villa (above) and Andres Iniesta scored in Spain’s 2-1 win over the Chileans, who had Marco Estrada sent off.

From tomorrow, the knockout phase begins, with the last 16 teams going up against one another as follows (please note all times are EST +6):

June 26
Uruguay vs South Korea, 15.00
USA vs Ghana, 19.30

June 27
England vs Germany, 15.00
Argentina vs Mexico, 19.30

June 28
Netherlands vs Slovakia, 15.00
Brazil vs Chile, 19.30

June 29
Paraguay vs Japan, 15.00
Spain vs Portugal, 19.30

Highlights of the round include the meeting of old rivals England and Germany, and a really tasty-looking Iberian derby between Spain and Portugal.

I imagine a few of you will also be keeping an eye on USA vs Ghana, especially after the dramatic last-minute Landon Donovan goal that secured USA’s progress from the groups. Should Team America get through, they’ll face either Uruguay or South Korea in the quarter-finals.

Spain, Chile join final 16 teams in World Cup knockout phase is a post from: The Inquisitr

Nearly a year ago, a German court slapped filesharing site RapidShare with a $34m fine and ruled that the site must proactively root out pirates and prevent instances of copyright infringement in a suit filed by German royalty collectors GEMA.

Now a similar case brought by Capelight Pictures has been overturned by a court of appeals in Germany. The Dusseldorf Court of Appeals ruled that RapidShare is not liable for illegal actions carried out by those who use the service. RapidShare founder Christian chmid commented on the ruling:

“We are very happy about the judgment. The court has confirmed that RapidShare is not responsible for the contents of files uploaded by its users,” Rapidshare founder Christian Schmid said commenting to the outcome of the appeal.

“The judgment shows that attempts to denounce our business model as illegal will not be successful in the long run. With its 1-click-filehosting model, RapidShare responds to legitimate interests of its users and will continue to do so in the future,” Schmid added.

The court also rejected preventative measures such as keyword filtering and manually reviewing files, a Sisyphean task that anyone with any understanding of technology realizes is impossible. The court also decided not to order a ban of file formats like RARs because they’re merely tools to compress files- should we ban cars because sometimes people use them in the commission of crimes?

The ruling, a big victory for RapidShare, will hopefully be considered when similar cases are inevitably brought in the future. Hopefully American courts will look to the technologically sound points returned in the judgment when considering future cases involving copyright infringement.

German court rules RapidShare not liable for users’ actions is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oh, Germany. You know I love you. Your currywurst rocks my world. I giggle at your upside-down houses. Oktoberfest is close to my heart. But please, how about doing something about that loony anti-gaming brigade of yours?

Late last week, a German teenager ran amok at his school with an axe, knives, and molotov cocktails. Mercifully, nobody was injured, but now the school’s principal wants to make sure his students are banned from playing so-called “killergames,” a policy he hopes will eventually extend to a whole network of German schools. Bernd Denning also thinks that games end up playing “a major part in turning minors into homicidal maniacs.” Eh?

I can sort of accept that Denning needs to be seen to be doing something right now, and that this is the kind of traumatic incident that not many of us have direct experience of.

But then games are such an easy target nowadays (particularly in Germany) that it’s hard not to be cynical about these reactions, particularly when sensationalist terms like “homicidal” get thrown about.

Indeed, there seems to be an air of agenda-setting about this case. After all, police have yet to confirm that the teenager responsible was even a gamer, but already Denning doesn’t just want violent games banned within the school – he wants to make sure his pupils are banned from playing them at home. Hopefully, some of the parents are a little more level-headed than poor old Bernd.

[gulli, via Negative Gamer]

German school principal: Videogames create “homicidal maniacs” is a post from: The Inquisitr

For those that might not recognize the name Crytek is a German video game software developer best known for their Crysis game as well the CryEngine a well respected gaming engine. Anyway it seems that Germany is threatening to ban all action games in the country and as a result the companies would no longer be able to develop them either.

Well this isn’t sitting to well with Cevat Yerli the president and co-founder of Crytek who has said publicly that if Germany goes ahead with this ban he will move the company out of Germany.

"A ban on action games in Germany is concerning us because it is essentially like banning the German artists that create them," he told PC Games Germany. "If the German creative community can’t effectively participate in one of the most important cultural mediums of our future, we will be forced to relocate to other countries.

"The current political discussion will deprive German talent of its place on the global game development stage, and deprive German consumers of entertainment that is considered safe and fun around the world."

Source: GamesIndustry.biz :: Yerli: Crytek will leave Germany if country bans action games

Other than the fact that Yerli wouldn’t have any other choice but to move the company if he wanted to keep on creating games like Crysis it is nice to see standing up and saying how stupid this idea is in the first place

Keep it up says Crytek to Germany and we’ll leave is a post from: The Inquisitr

Urbanscreen, a German group of artists and architects, has created a scarily active building using projection and… uh, nighttime.

The video below is titled, very teutonically, ”How it would be, if a house was dreaming.” And judging by the first few seconds of the video, screencapped above, it’s pretty obvious what we caught the house dreaming about. At the risk of sounding puerile, that is totally boobies, isn’t it? In any event, the about-to-rise-and-kill-us structure happens to be O.M. Ungers’ Galerie der Gegenwart in Hamburg, Germany.

Freshhome described the project all official-like:

Resultant permeabilty of the solid facade uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves – describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself.

Even if the above sentence makes absolutely no sense to you, you will appreciate the piece- view it below.

[Freshome via Engadget]

Sentient house will grope your tatas is a post from: The Inquisitr

Never one to go unnoticed, pint-sized pop sensation, Lady GaGa showed up for an interview on a German TV show wearing a top made out of green Kermit the frog puppets. Check out the video below.

Lady GaGa reveals Kermit the frog fetish in Germany is a post from: The Inquisitr

An TV ad made for Sprite in Germany has been allegedly banned after a Government watchdog found that the content was not suitable for television.

Before you say “WTF, a Sprite commercial” let me explain: the commercial shows a women offering oral sex to a man, with the bottle of Sprite…well, I won’t spoil it.

The banned Sprite commercial as follow. Although the ad shows no actual body parts, consider it NSFW none the less.

UPDATE: the original was pulled by YouTube due to a complaint from Coca Cola…here’s the edited version without any mention of Sprite…but you can work out where Sprite was originally meant to be.

Germany bans Sprite ad: wait till you see why is a post from: The Inquisitr