Apple's patent complaint against Samsung in Germany reportedly includes a little nugget that says Cupertino has also sued Motorola over the design over its Xoom tablet.
"Prior to or simultaneously with the motion for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, Apple also filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola Xoom tablet," FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller wrote in a blog post.
A local German company, JAY-tech, was also included in the suit, Mueller said, pointing to a section of the filing, which is in German.
Motorola did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Motorola might have cause for concern, since the Regional Court of Dusseldorf this week blocked the sale and import of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the European Union, save for the Netherlands, based on Apple's suit. That comes after Apple convinced an Australian court to stop all pre-launch advertising for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country until the Federal Court of Australia resolves Apple's suit against Samsung.
As Mueller notes, however, it's unclear if Apple's German complaint requests a preliminary injunction against the Xoom, though it does request one for JAY-tech's tablet.
"While it's not stated explicitly, I suppose that the complaint against Motorola also asks the court for an EU-wide injunction, but perhaps just for a permanent injunction without a previous preliminary one," Mueller speculated.
It's possible, he continued, that Apple might be too late for a preliminary injunction.
"While Apple appears to place particular emphasis on lawsuits over tablet computers in its European design-related lawsuits, I believe the reason is that a preliminary injunction can't be requested in Germany if the right holder has been aware of an infringement for too long," Mueller said. "There isn't a clear statutory limit, but German lawyers usually discourage such motions unless they are filed within one month of finding out about an infringement. It's possible to get permanent injunctions even against older products, but for preliminary ones there must be a particular sense of urgency. It's possible that Apple has also been aware of the Xoom for too long to file for a preliminary injunction at this stage."
This, of course, would not be the first time Apple and Motorola have battled it out in court. Motorola sued Apple for patent infringement in October over Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Apple coutersued several weeks later, saying that Motorola multi-touch smartphones use Apple-owned intellectual property.
Mueller published a "battle map" that outlines some of the Apple vs. Motorola patents in question.