A German regional court Thursday cleared the way for Apple to file for a permanent injunction barring the sale of products in Germany put out by Google satellite Motorola Mobility.

It was found guilty of infringing Apple's "rubber-banding" patent in its Android tablets and smartphones. The feature lets a page on a mobile device bounce back after a user has swiped the bottom of the screen.

It's only a month since a California jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple over a billion dollars because its Android devices infringe Apple IP.

There is a "blue glow" workaround for the rubber band but it's not very effective and FOSS Patents says the "injunction spells further degradation of the Android user experience."

Apple will have to post a €25 million ($31.5 million) bond to get the injunction enforced. For another €10 million it can insist that Motorola destroy any infringing widgetry. Still another €10 million will buy it a product recall. And there the little matter of damages for past infringement.

Google of course is expected to appeal.

Apple has already won two other injunctions in Germany against Motorola for infringing other patents and Microsoft won another case.

FOSS Patents says, "The outcome of those cases shows that Android has far bigger patent infringement problems than any piece of computer software has ever had in the history of the industry, and this has many of Google's hardware partners profoundly concerned."

Apple has also charged Samsung with rubber-banding infringement.

See http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/09/german-court-hands-apple-rubber-banding.html