In the backdrop of ongoing patent dispute with Motorola Apple on Friday disabled the push email function for its mobile devices in Germany.

A German court early this month had ruled earlier that Apple had infringed upon a Motorola patent on push email technology. 

Apple Inc. said the disabling of the push service, which sends messages automatically to the devices as soon as they're received rather than waiting for the device to refresh its email, will affect customers using MobileMe and iCloud email. 

Apple says those customers can still receive email using other settings. 

Apple says it believes its patent is valid and is appealing the decision.