Apple loses patent case against Samsung, Motorola in Germany

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2011 file photo, an attorney holds an Apple iPad, left, and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at the regional court in Duesseldorf, Germany. The two tech Titans will square off in federal court Monday, July 30, 2012, in a closely watched trial over control of the U.S. smart phone and computer tablet markets. Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. last year alleging the world's largest technology company's smartphones and computer tablets are illegal knockoffs of its popular iPhone and iPad products. (AP Photo/dapd, Sascha Schuermann, File)

A German court has dismissed tech giant Apple’s claims that Google-owned Motorola and Korean firm Samsung infringed some of its multi-touch patents.

The Mannheim court rejected Apple’s allegations that the two firms had copied how its devices handled data according to how many fingers touched a gadget’s screen.

According to the BBC, the Mannheim case is one of several patent trials Apple is involved with in Germany.

The iPhone maker filed separate legal claims against Motorola, now owned by Google, and Samsung over what are known as ‘touch event’ technologies. According to the report, rather than examine Apple’s claims separately, the German court brought both cases together and issued a joint verdict.

Now, Apple has one month time to appeal against the court’s decision.

This is not the first time that Apple has also lost a case on the ‘touch event’ patent.

The California-based firm lost a case against Taiwanese mobile maker HTC in the U.K. over the same technology.