Apple has lost a German court ruling related to a patent infringement case brought by Motorola Mobility but lawyers predict the company will be able to secure a temporary suspension of the ruling.

The Mannheim Regional Court made a default ruling in favour of Motorola on Friday related to a patent infringement case that handed Apple an injunction barring the sale of devices that infringe two Motorola Mobility patents and ruled that Apple owes Motorola damages for past infringement since April 2003.

However, it appears the default ruling was made due to Apple not defending itself in time, meaning its arguments weren’t considered. Lawyers that software patent blog FOSS Patents spoke to have predicted Apple will be able to secure a temporary suspension of the ruling once its arguments have been heard.

FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller added that a company with Apple’s resources should be able to reverse the default judgement with “substantive arguments”. Apple will have to file its objections to the default judgement within two weeks of the initial ruling.

Mueller said the impact of the ruling is debatable as it doesn’t mention Apple’s German subsidiary. Apple also provided a statement describing the ruling as a procedural issue that “does not affect our ability to do business or sell products in Germany at this time.”

German lawyers told Foss Patents that despite Apple’s German business not being cited in the ruling, any restriction put on Apple Inc to do business in Germany would put Apple’s German business at a disadvantage due to the fact that Apple Sales International based in Cork, Ireland, supplies devices to the company’s German business.

“While Apple is fairly likely to get the injunction suspended, this is in the court's discretion and can go either way, so Cupertino can take a deep breath only after the grant of a temporary suspension,” Mueller wrote in a blog post.

Apple has won a number of legal cases regarding patents, including several against Samsung, in recent months.