The partnership between Google and Motorola doesn’t seem to be serving it well with the company close to losing a patent lawsuit in Germany which could result in Google Maps being banned in the entire country.
Microsoft filed a patent lawsuit against Google in Germany for allegedly infringing their patent of a “computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor”. It would seem Google is on the very verge of losing this suit. Google hasn’t been able to convince the courts that it is not infringing the patents as claimed by Microsoft.
The Judge said that he is inclined to hold Google liable for the infringement. If Microsoft wins the lawsuit, Google might be forced to remove its Maps from Germany. Not just that, they would have to remove Maps from every platform and service including Google Play Store. Even the features for Maps in in the Chrome browser would have to be pulled off. In short every single service that uses Maps would suffer.
Considering the user base of the Google Maps service in Germany compared to Microsoft Bing maps, it would be unlikely that Google would be asked to pull off its Maps. Should Google Maps be out of its way, Microsoft Bing Maps would be the unchallenged winner despite its poor quality.
