Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync Lives on in Germany, For Now

Motorola was dealt a setback today when a German court decided to re-open a patent case over whether Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync violates a "push" patent held by Motorola.

Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court said that evidence presented by Microsoft in an April 20 filing requires further examination and a new trial. The decision means Motorola will have to wait at least several more months for a resolution.

"We are pleased the Mannheim court is looking even more closely at this case and remain confident in our arguments," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

A Motorola spokeswoman said "This is one final step in the process and we remain confident in our position."

Motorola has had more success going after Apple on the same issue. In February, a Manheim court against Apple's iCloud push email notifications. Several weeks later, the feature was .

But as patent blogger Florian Mueller noted at the time, "setting one's email client to, for example, a two-minute interval to check for and pull any new email messages is not the end of the world."

As for today's ruling, Mueller said in a blog post that "in a best-case scenario for Microsoft, which is a real possibility based on the court's initial assessment, its prior user rights will enable it to fend off this action altogether. At the very least, today's order will result in a delay of several months for this lawsuit."