Apple has won a patent infringement case against Motorola in a German court. The court has directed Motorola to pay a yet-to-be-specified fine and pull the infringing devices, which run on Google's Android operating system, from the market, according to a court spokesperson.

According to media reports, Apple sued Google-owned Motorola Mobility for infringing on its "list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touchscreen display" patent.

Motorola, which had won a similar patent case in western Germany last July, has one month to appeal the decision.

The Munich court ruled that Motorola Mobility infringes on the patent with its smartphones and tablet computers, said Ruhwinkel. Infringing devices include the Motorola Milestone XT720, the Motorola DEFY, the Motorola Atrix and Motorola XOOM, which all use the Android OS.

The patent involves a feature known as "overscroll bounce" or "rubber-banding" that pulls a written text or image back to the centre of the screen to signify to the user that the end of a list or menu has been completed.