Motorola Mobility has won a permanent injunction against Apple’s iCloud which could block the sale of iPhones and iPads in Germany after a court decision against Apple Sales International, the sales organisation based in Ireland.

The Mannheim Regional Court – which has also hosted patent cases between Samsung and Apple – has given Motorola a permanent injunction against the iCloud cloud storage service and any devices that access it. Despite being related to Apple’s European distribution arm, the injunction only applies to Germany.

The original complaint was filed by Motorola in April 2011 and concerned a patent for a "multiple pager status synchronization system and method" which the company claimed was used in Apple’s iCloud service. A default judgement on the case was passed in November.

As the judgement is “preliminarily enforceable” it can be appealed by Apple, according to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller. He expects the company to file an appeal with the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court.

Motorola is able to enforce the injunction if its posts a EUR100 million bond. However, if the appeal court overturns the ruling, the company will be liable for premature enforcement of an injunction that has been granted improperly, and could owe damages that could exceed the bond. Apple has previously argued that the bond should be EUR2 billion.

Mueller speculates that Motorola could well enforce the injunction due to the importance of the case. With Google poised to acquire the company, it may also have the necessary financial resources to cover any associated costs should Apple win an appeal, he added.

This is the third time that the Mannheim Regional Court has ruled in Motorola’s favour against Apple, with two being significant decisions. The third, a default judgement, will be reviewed today. This contrasts with Samsung which has lost two cases against Apple in the same court.

Motorola recently filed a new suit against Apple in the US, accusing the iPhone maker of infringing six of its technology patents.