Two former iPhone factory workers in China, who were critically injured at Apple supplier Wintek’s plant in 2009, are looking to take advantage of Apple’s yearly meeting by attracting attention to the conditions at factories where Apple’s most important products are assembled.

SumOfUs.org is distributing a petition from Gou Rui-qiang and Jia Jing-chuan, both of whom suffered nerve damage from using n-hexane, a toxic chemical, to clean iPhone screens at the factory. One hundred and thirty-five of their colleagues also reported being sickened. Apple no longer allows the chemical to be used, and Wintek reportedly compensated some of the medical treatment, but Gou and Jia want Apple to pay up.

“We have been pressuring Apple, and its new CEO Tim Cook, for years to compensate those of us who were injured working for them, and demanding reform of working conditions at their Chinese factories so that their workers don’t suffer like we do. Now we need your help as customers or potential customers of Apple,” the petition reads.

The goal of the petition, which has 84,000 signatures so far, is to get a total of 100,000 names before delivering it to CEO Tim Cook at the shareholder meeting on Thursday.

There has never been such intense scrutiny of the people who build Apple’s products or the places where they work as now. SumOfUs is the same group that helped back the original petition calling for the manufacturing of “an ethical iPhone,” which brought further attention to the plight of workers in Apple factories in China brought to light by the New York Times last month. SumOfUs and Change.org delivered thousands of signatures to some Apple locations earlier this month. Shortly thereafter Apple announced the Fair Labor Association would be inspecting its third-party manufacturing plants in China.

The investigations began last week, with the head of the FLA saying plublicly that it has found “tons of issues” at Foxconn plants. Apple also arranged for ABC News to get exclusive access to its factories. The Verge has a good roundup of what few new things were revealed by ABC’s tour. Perhaps not too surprisingly, the head FLA auditor told ABC it expected Foxconn to “put on a show” for FLA auditors and the cameras.

Apple’s shareholder meeting, the first for Cook in his official capacity as CEO, takes place at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Thursday at 10 a.m. PT.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008
• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

The patents in question are No. 6,236,717 and No. 5,719,922, which are  very similar, and both are described as covering a “simultaneous voice/data answering machine.” The patents at issue were filed in 2001 and 1998, respectively, in Florida by their inventors.

Here’s the official description from the patent filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

A simultaneous voice and data modem coordinates the storage of voice messages and data messages on an audio answering machine and a personal computer, respectively. This allows the called party to subsequently retrieve, via the simultaneous voice and data modem, both a voice message and an associated data message, i.e., a multimedia message, where the called party listens to the voice message while viewing the data message. The called party can retrieve the multimedia message either locally or from a remote location.

So who is Brandywine Communications Technologies? When Verizon sued the company last week for infringement — on different patents — the carrier basically accused Brandywine of patent trolling. In that complaint against Brandywine, Verizon described the company as “a patent holding company that is in the business of enforcing patent rights through the filing of various lawsuits.”

That would put Brandywine in the same category as Lodsys and NTP, two patent holding companies that went after Apple and several other mobile device makers in recent years over both in-app purchase technology and wireless email delivery methods.

Brandywine does seem to be scattering patent lawsuits far and wide. It already sued practically every big name in mobile technology back in September over these same patents. That included Apple, RIM, LG, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, HTC, T-Mobile, AT&T and several others. This time they’re trying their luck at suing Apple directly.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE

Apple Store in Shanghai

The fight over whether Apple has the right to sell the iPad in China continued Wednesday in Shanghai, China’s most populous city and one of the most important places for Apple doing business in the country. Chinese manufacturer Proview wants to ban the iPad from all stores in Shanghai over a trademark dispute. Apple’s lawyers argued that it is in China’s national interest to keep iPads on the market.

Apple contends that Proview is trying to dispute a trademark and remove a product for sale even though it has no alternative product. ”Proview has no product, no markets, no customers and no suppliers. It has nothing,” one of Apple’s lawyers told the court, according to Reuters.

Proview Technology, a manufacturer of flatscreens, launched a tablet called IPAD in 2000 and registered the trademark. In 2006, Proview Electronics, which shares a parent company with Proview Technology, sold Apple the use of the IPAD name, but the companies are at odds over whether Apple is covered to sell the devices everywhere in the China market. Proview is also in some deep financial straits, so it is probably to be expected that it is offering Apple a deal: Proview says it will settle the case for about $1.6 billion.

Apple wants to continue the fight. Here is Apple’s official statement:

 “We bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter. Our case is still pending in mainland China.”

Apple lost this argument in lower courts in China, including a ruling back in December. Proview has since broadened its case, and asked last week that the iPad not be shipped in or out of China.

Though not being able to sell in Shanghai — Apple has three stores in that city alone — would be a a huge setback, not being able to ship the devices, which are made in China — would be a bigger blow to the iPad business. China is the second-largest market for Apple, and the company’s expansion there in the last year has been a huge boon to its bottom line. But Apple’s argument of how important the iPad is to China too is undeniable.

Apple’s lawyer in Wednesday’s proceeding put it this way: “Apple has huge sales in China. Its fans line up to buy Apple products. The ban, if executed, would not only hurt Apple sales but it would also hurt China’s national interest.”

The Shanghai court has not yet issued a ruling on the matter.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012

The China Telecom deal has been in the works for a while. Last month it was reported that only the final steps for the phone to be certified to run on the network remained, and that the deal would be finished by the end of February. By offering the iPhone 4S — of which Apple has sold 37 million units in just three months — to China Telecom’s 15 million customers, Apple stands to add to its already impressive tally for number of iPhone 4Ses sold.

But more importantly, by adding yet another carrier, Apple is moving closer to more fully addressing its second-most important market in the world. It already has China Unicom, where one out of every five of the carrier’s subscribers have chosen the iPhone, according to Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty.

The big “get,” however, is China Mobile, which has a 70 percent share of mobile customers in China. The two sides have been talking, but there are still some technical hurdles. Considering how important China is to Apple, it seems like Cupertino would find a way to iron those out eventually.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been very clear about his commitment to the country and has said he’s “never seen a country with as many people rising into the middle class aspiring to buy products that Apple makes. It’s an area of enormous opportunity.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

Here’s what the head auditor said Friday:

“We’re finding tons of issues,” [FLA CEO Auret] van Heerden said en route to a meeting where FLA inspectors were scheduled to present preliminary findings to Foxconn management. “I believe we’re going to see some very significant announcements in the near future.”

Doesn’t sound good, right? Except we don’t know exactly what those issues are — the head auditor doesn’t define “issues.” Are they major violations of health and safety? Or are they more minor things that Apple and Foxconn could work to fix quickly? It seems like the FLA is holding back on specifics for an official announcement of its findings in the next few weeks.

The “tons of issues” comment does seem somewhat at odds with what the same auditors said earlier this week. On Wednesday they gave this slightly more positive — but still vague — description to Reuters: ”The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.”

“Way above average” could be good, or it could still mean conditions that would shock the average iPhone or iPad owner. Apple has been trying to drive this point home themselves — that they are improving how Chinese electronics factories operate — in its public relations messaging on the uproar over Foxconn’s factories. On Tuesday Apple CEO Tim Cook opened his (extremely rare) public Q&A with investors by talking about the ways Apple is trying to improve its supplier factories: ”In terms of problems that we are working to fix, you can read the details on our website. But I would tell you that no one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple.”

The FLA reportedly will publish its findings, after Foxconn has had a chance to respond to the reported violations.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: Steve Jobs
• U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008
• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications

Mac developers will get the first chance to sink their teeth into the developer preview of Mountain Lion starting Thursday. The rest of us will be able to download the finished product sometime “this summer,” according to Apple. Mountain Lion will be a paid download from the Mac App Store, like Lion, but Apple says it’s not yet ready to talk about price.

Looking at the company’s balance sheet, it’s obvious that Apple is defined by mobile. This next OS X release drives that point home even more, and shows that CEO Tim Cook meant what he said about iCloud being a company strategy for the next decade. Though Apple sold more Macs last quarter than ever before (5.2 million), that’s still not satisfactory for the company: with Mountain Lion taking on so many familiar traits of iOS, Apple clearly intends to make it more difficult for iPhone and iPad lovers who are Mac OS holdouts to continue to say no.

Here are some new features we’re going to see in Mountain Lion:

• Built-in iCloud integration. Setting up iCloud will be the second thing you do after setting up a new Mac with Mountain Lion. The big new thing in this version will be the ease with which you can access Documents in the Cloud, which will allow your documents created in Pages (or some other third-party apps) to be available on any Mac OS or iOS device.
• iMessage on Mac. Many people have been asking for this, and finally we’re going to get it. The Messages app, which will appear very familiar to iOS users, replaces iChat. It’ll let you start a conversation on a Mac and continue it on a different device, like your iPhone or iPad.
• Notes and Reminders. Any notes you make on a Mac or iOS device, along with any reminders you set for yourself, will show up on any of your Mac or iOS devices. Both apps can be searched and look easier to navigate with the additional screen space of a desktop. Notes can be “pinned” to your desktop.
• Notifications. Just like the drop-down Notification Center on iOS, the Mac is getting its own version in the top right corner of the screen. All reminders, app alerts and calendar appointments will appear there. And just like iOS, Mountain Lion Notification Center has its own swipe to bring up the window — two fingers right to left from the right edge of the trackpad.
• Sharing from apps. That sharing arrow that appears in iOS apps? Apple has inserted it in many Mac applications and dubbed it Share Sheet. That button will let you share web pages, notes, videos, QuickTime files, docs and photos via email, Messages, AirDrop or Twitter, or post photos or video to Vimeo or Flickr.
• Twitter integration in the OS. This is kind of a big deal for Twitter. When you share something via Twitter in Mountain Lion, a Tweet Sheet pops up, which looks like an index card with whatever it is you’re tweeting attached via paper clip.
• GameCenter. Apple’s social gaming network comes to the desktop, and brings with it a new opportunity for developers. With a new set of GameKit APIs, game creators can develop games for both Mac and iOS, so players can compete whether they’re on an Apple desktop or mobile device. Current Game Center-compatible iOS games will have to be converted to appear in the Mac App Store.
• AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV. Just like an iPad or iPhone 4S, you will be able to mirror your Mac desktop on your TV via an Apple TV (as long as your Mac has an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor).
• New security features. Gatekeeper lets users select settings to control which apps can be downloaded to a computer. You can choose to allow all apps, or only apps with a developer-signed ID program (run by Apple) to be downloaded. Or, for the most conservative choice, only apps from the Mac App Store.
• Improved features for Chinese users. Apple is making a special point to improve text input and make popular Chinese web services and apps a built-in choice for some applications for customers in its second-most important market.

The next version of Mac OS very much treats the Mac as an equal to the iPhone and iPad. With iCloud at the center of it all, it doesn’t matter where you start a game or save a document or save a note — the Mac is no longer the thing to which your mobile devices plug in. Apple has 100 million registered iCloud users now, and by making it easier to access it or sign up from new Macs with Mountain Lion, it’s sure to add to those numbers in short order.

The Mac's Notifications Center

But even in this mobile, post-PC world, Apple is showing it has no intention of letting the Mac just slink along. Its computers have always been outsold by its mobile devices: first the iPod, then the iPhone and the iPad. Rather than accept the idea that its mobile devices are more popular and focus all its energy there, Apple is making a move with the Mac.

Another effect of what Apple is able to do with these evolutions in its desktop OS is it’s bringing current and potential users further and further into its grip. That’s not meant to sound sinister — though to some people it may well be — it’s just that Apple is pressing even harder to make a customer’s decision to use competitors’ products that much more difficult.

Whether it’s making Mac OS feel familiar to happy iPhone and iPad customers so they won’t think of using another PC brand, or enabling people to set their computers so that only Apple-approved software is downloaded, all the work Apple has done for the last 15 years is paying off: Each of its products is set up to provide a halo effect on the others. That’s a really hard thing for any one manufacturer to do. But it’s because of Apple’s extreme focus that their products line up together so cohesively and logically. Not everyone is going to buy into it, but Apple makes doing so seem very easy.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• LTE changes everything; LTE changes nothing

Cook did talk at great length about his view of the potential growth opportunities for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. But just as important for investors who want a clue as to where the company is going in Steve Jobs’ absence, Cook also opened up a bit on how he plans to make his own mark on Apple. He is very obviously not Steve Jobs, something he’s been repeatedly reminded of by the press and Wall Street since it first became apparent he would likely take the reins from Jobs permanently. And while it’s clear he has learned from Jobs in many ways — peppering his sentences with words like “amazing” and “incredible” and espousing his belief in the supremacy of Apple’s vision and extreme focus — Cook is passionate about Apple in his own way.

One of the things he takes very seriously is his role as the caretaker of Apple and what Jobs created. He said:

Apple is this unique company, unique culture that you can’t replicate. And I’m not going to witness or prevent the slow undoing of it — because I believe in it so deeply. Steve drilled in all of us over many years that the company should revolve around great products and we should stay extremely focused on a few things rather than so many that we did nothing well. And we should only go into markets where we can make  a significant contribution to society, not just sell a lot of products. Along with keeping excellent as an expectation of everything at Apple, these are the things I focus on.

Sure, we all think of Cook as the spreadsheet-and-numbers nerd, but he is becoming a salesman too: During the Q&A session, he recommended at least three times that listeners go buy an Apple TV.

It’s not a secret that the things that made Jobs tick are not the same for his successor. And Cook, who is a notoriously private person, is starting to show what those things are to company outsiders. For him, it seems, rather than inventing the future or ruminating on big ideas, the big reward for him is winning customers and putting products in people’s hands. “There’s no better thrill than to look at an audience and see people using iPods or iPads,” he said. “These are the things that bring a smile to my face, and there is no substitute for that.”

Cook’s view on cash

One of the ways Cook may turn out to be different from Jobs is what happens under his watch with the company’s cash and liquid assets. Jobs was very adamant that no dividend or share buybacks or large acquisitions be made, in order to keep Apple totally out of debt and independent should the company hit rough financial waters. Cook has signaled he’s not nearly as extreme in his position — several times, including on Tuesday, he has reminded investors he is “not religious” about keeping cash or not.

So what is his attitude? He cleared up any ideas that Apple just sits on its pile of cash (or goes swimming in a lake of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck). He noted that the company has spent “billions” on its supply chain, acquisitions, retail operations and company infrastructure:

Yes, we still have a lot. I guess I’m saying we’re judicious. We’re deliberate. We spend our money like it’s our last penny. And I think shareholders want us to do that. They don’t want us to act like we’re rich. We’ve never felt that way — that may sound bizarre, but it’s the truth.

Cook trotted out the same line the company has been using about its cash in the last several years, that the board is “in active discussions” about what to do with it. But this time he admitted that there is more focus than ever “because the balance has risen.” And he made another admission:

We have more cash than we need to run the business on a daily basis. 

With that he asked for patience while the board decides what to do. While it’s not terribly likely he will get it, how he’s handling the issue does demonstrate Cook’s style. He’s very much a product of the Apple/Jobs way, but he’s looking ahead and is not opposed to at least thinking a little differently about the way things have always been done.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: Steve Jobs
• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE
• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• Mobile Q4: The scramble for spectrum continues

Habitat is free and cloud-based and is aimed at professional publishing houses — not just anyone who wants to try their hand at e-book creation. It allows publishers to create interactive books themselves, something Inkling has been doing as its core business for the last two years.

Read more about the project from Laura Hazard Owen at paidContent.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• NewNet 2012: companies and technologies set to disrupt
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015

A Chinese company called Proview has asked its government to ban the import of iPads and their export, which could be problematic for Apple since the iPad is built by third-party manufacturers in China.

For more about the implications and what Apple is saying about it, see Robert Andrews’ full story at paidContent.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE
• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era

The stock surge comes several weeks after Apple’s blockbuster earnings announcement, but also in the aftermath of a report about the substandard working conditions at the factories where many of Apple’s most popular products are made by third-party manufacturers. The outcry over the report prompted calls for boycotts and for others to petition Apple to build “an ethical iPhone.”

In any case, investors don’t appear to be fazed. Here’s what Apple’s stock has done in the six months since Tim Cook took over as CEO:

Credit: Yahoo Finance

Update: AAPL ended the day up just over 9 points, closing at $502.60.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: Steve Jobs
• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

Apple was the only brand in the top five in the U.S. to see an increase in sales, which was 36 percent more than the company’s U.S. sales in 2010. And in the fourth quarter — which you may remember was Apple’s biggest quarter in the history of the company — Apple “accounted for 19 percent of all sales dollars” of consumer gadgets sold, according to the NPD report. Or, for comparison, twice as many in that quarter as the world’s largest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard.

The report goes on to say that there are fewer and fewer categories of devices that U.S. consumers are spending their money on. And part of what’s working in Apple’s favor is that Apple makes products in most of those select categories:

• NPD says 60 percent of consumer electronics sales last year were PCs, TVs, tablets or e-readers, phones or video game hardware. Apple is a leading brand name in three of those categories, and you could say they operate in another (video game hardware) if you wanted to be a bit liberal with how you categorize the iPod touch or iPhone, which are used to play a lot of games.
• Specifically, the tablet/e-reader category saw the best growth during 2011, with sales doubling to $15 billion. As we know from previous reports, Apple is a main reason those sales doubled — the iPad, which sold 40 million units in 2011, accounted for nearly 60 percent of all tablet sales last year.

So are consumers being more narrow about the types of gadgets they’re interested in purchasing? Or are the smartphones with 8 megapixel cameras and video games, tablets with productivity apps and video streaming reducing our need for additional devices? Perhaps both. Either way, Apple — with its obsessive tendency to focus on only a few products — is reaping the benefits.

Image source: Flickr user edvvc

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

In a press release, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers. The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”

The reason Apple is ordering these “unusual” inspections of its factories? It’s likely two-fold: First, the New York Times’ late January expose on the working conditions at Foxconn’s plants that make popular consumer electronics items, including iPhones and iPads, which were highlighted in the series. And second, the resulting outrage at those conditions. Consumers, many of whom call themselves Apple fans and owners of iPhones and iPads, have responded in different ways. The most visible have been the online petition and the subsequent staged delivery of 250,000 signatures by Change.org and SumOfUs.org to Apple locations last week asking for an “ethical iPhone.”

Foxconn is up first, likely because of its visibility and size, followed by Quanta and Pegatron “later this spring,” according to Apple.

This is how Apple says the FLA will handle the inspection:

As part of its independent assessment, the FLA will interview thousands of employees about working and living conditions including health and safety, compensation, working hours and communication with management. The FLA’s team will inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities, and will conduct an extensive review of documents related to procedures at all stages of employment.

Apple’s suppliers have promised “full cooperation with the FLA” and will offer “unrestricted access to their operations,” Apple says. Whatever they find will be posted, along with recommendations, sometime in early March on the association’s website.

These are not the first inspections Apple has done of its factories — far from it. The company has maintained that it’s been doing all it could to improve the conditions, and published its first supplier report in January — right before the Times’ investigation was to be published. After the stories hit, Cook said in an email to employees that he was “outraged” by the accusation that Apple didn’t care about the workers in its suppliers’ factories. However, things didn’t blow over.

Apple doesn’t respond to outside accusations publicly very often. So the fact that the company feels like it needs a third-party to verify factory conditions and try to demonstrate that it cares about being a good global citizen means that the protests and response from its own customers hit a nerve.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012

Motorola sued Apple in April last year over use of technology covered by U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898 in Germany. Apple for its part says because Motorola has licensed Qualcomm to make chips that allow devices to connect to UMTS and GRPS networks, and Apple is a third-party licensee of Qualcomm, Apple can legally use the MDM6610 chip from Qualcomm and other components from the chipmaker in its devices.

The latest is that the iPhone maker is now suing Motorola in the U.S., asking the District Court for the Southern District of California to step in a prevent the company from suing Apple for using technologies it says it is already licensed to use.

From the complaint:

Motorola’s German lawsuit is in direct breach of a Patent Licensing Agreement between Motorola and Qualcomm. As a Qualcomm customer, Apple is a third-party beneficiary of that contract. Moreover, under this same contract, Motorola’s rights under the ‘336 and the ‘898 patents are exhausted.

Apple also claims breach of contract and is asking for an injunction.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• LTE changes everything; LTE changes nothing
• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

Our friends at PaidContent this morning reported that Apple filed a complaint earlier this week in a federal court in San Jose citing two patents and asking for an injunction against the Korean electronics maker. The patents in question are  8,074,172 and 8,086,604. The first is related to spelling and autocorrect. The second is described as a “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system.”

What Apple is asking for in this case is unclear — as in whether they’re targeting the Galaxy Tab or Galaxy phones or any other product — since most of the court documents haven’t been made publicly available.

But it’s clear that Apple is not through trying to use the courts to punish Samsung for, as Apple put it, “slavishly copying” its iPhone and iPad products.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• LTE changes everything; LTE changes nothing
• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE
• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues

Patents blog FOSS Patents explains:

The judge explained that the court does not hold Apple to infringe claim 9 of EP1053613 on a ‘method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access [CDMA] signal’. In the court’s opinion, MMI failed to present conclusive evidence for its infringement contention.

Motorola had argued that the patent named above was “essential,” meaning that someone — in this case, Apple — would have to use technology covered by the patent if they’re using an industry-standard practice. The problem is, the judge didn’t see it that way and says Motorola didn’t present a convincing case that the patent was essential.

Just a week ago, Motorola claimed victory on two separate rulings related to its ongoing intellectual property battle with Apple. In the first, an injunction was granted against older iPhone and iPad models that infringed on a GPRS-related patent. And in the second, Motorola won an injunction against Apple devices that receive push email notifications from its iCloud system in Germany. Apple said it would appeal both.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• LTE changes everything; LTE changes nothing