A court in Germany has ruled that Motorola Mobility mobile phones have infringed a Microsoft patent. It’s the first defeat for Motorola Mobility since its acquisition by Google was completed earlier this week.

The patent allowed mobile phones to send text messages that were longer than a network would normally permit by breaking them up and then reassembling them; an option often referred to as concatenation.

Google has said it will wait until it received official court documents before deciding on its next action, which could be a legal appeal. A week ago Motorola Mobility lost a patent-related case against Microsoft at the US International Trade Commission.

[More details: FOSS Patents; BBC News]