A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that Google's Motorola Mobility unit cannot enforce a patent injunction that it obtained against Microsoft in Germany. The injunction would have barred Microsoft from "offering, marketing, using or importing or possessing" in Germany some products including the Xbox 360 and certain Windows software.

Microsoft sued Motorola in the United States in 2010, and Motorola then filed a lawsuit in Germany.

After a court in Mannheim issued the sales ban, U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle granted Microsoft's request to put the German order on hold earlier this year. According to Robart, the ruling would remain in effect until he could determine whether Motorola could appropriately seek a sales ban based on its standard essential patents.

In its ruling on Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld Robart's order.