In the latest development in Microsoft-Motorola patent-infringement lawsuit, Judge Andreas Voss, of Germany’s Mannheim Regional court, issued a verdict in favor of Microsoft, saying that Motorola's Android-powered devices had been found to have infringed on a technology which had been developed and patented by Microsoft --- namely, the File Allocation Table (FAT) patent.

The court’s verdict, according to patent blogger Florian Mueller, marks Microsoft's third win in its patent dispute with Motorola; and it implies that Microsoft has won a ban on the sales of Motorola’s Android-based devices in Germany. As a result, Motorola’s Droid and Atrix handsets have been banned and removed from the store shelves in the country.

However, though Judge Voss’ ruling that Motorola devices have violated Microsoft’s FAT patent pertaining to a "common name space for long and short filenames" has resulted in Microsoft getting an injunction against the infringing Motorola products, Microsoft needs to put up a 10 million Euro bond for the injunction to become effective.

In case Motorola prevails during the appeals process, the money which Microsoft puts up will go to Motorola as a recompense for the losses that it may incur during the injunction.

Meanwhile, noting that Motorola had not anticipated “an impact on our operations at this time,” a Motorola spokeswoman has revealed that the company is currently “reviewing the ruling, and will explore all of our options including appeal.”