If Android’s mounting patent issues are a concern, Google chairman Eric Schmidt isn’t letting on about it. He dismissed the growing patent issues as “legal fun” at a Google mobile event in Tokyo and called out competitors for their propensity to litigate instead of innovate. Read more »
Apple is ratcheting up its patent war against HTC, filing a new complaint with the ITC seeking the ban of “personal electronic devices.” The filing comes after an initial complaint lodged against HTC last year and a similar case filed last week by Apple against Samsung. Read more »
A consortium led by Apple, Research In Motion and Microsoft has bought up Nortel’s 6,000 patents for $4.5 billion in an auction that could lead to further trouble for Google, who was outbid for the trove of intellectual property. Read more »
Apple won a significant victory last week when it was awarded a key patent related to basic multitouch functionality. It was called too broad by many, and raised the specter of pitched legal drama. It’s definitely a key victory for Apple, but why? Read more »
Lodsys wants more time to address the request by Apple to intervene in its court proceedings against seven small app developers, in the ongoing saga of in-app purchasing patents. Also, Samsung doesn’t get early access to Apple gear, a judge has ruled. Read more »
Apple has amended its existing complaint against Samsung over intellectual property rights violations, removing a few infringement claims, but adding many more. The Mac-maker also clarified language in an attempt to deflect Samsung’s recent request to see unreleased iPhone and iPad hardware related to the case. Read more »
Patent holder Lodsys is busy suing small developers making apps for Apple’s platform, but it now also faces an incoming complaint of its own. A Michigan analytics firm has filed a declaratory judgment action against Lodsys that could eventually lead to the invalidation of its patents. Read more »
Apple Monday sent a letter to Lodsys and to developers, saying it has the rights to in-app purchases and that developers are fully able to use them, according to Macworld. Devs on Twitter had begun discussing the letter received by Apple just a few hours ago. Read more »
The best course of action for iOS developers faced with patent infringement suit threats issued by patent holding firm Lodsys earlier this month might be to play nice with licensing requests, according to one intellectual property researcher. It might be the only affordable course of action. Read more »
Lodsys, the patent holding company going after iOS developers, is little more than a “patent troll” according to the EFF. But Apple takes a nearly equal share of the blame for the situation in a new blog post by the Foundation posted Friday. Read more »
Apple is “actively investigating” the claims of patent infringement made by Lodsys against App Store developers, according to The Guardian. Lodsys, a patent holding firm, has been sending notices to independent developers giving them 21 days to secure a license for technology used in in-app purchases. Read more »
Lodsys, the company suing iOS developers for patent infringement over in-app purchases, has created a blog in response to the situation. The blog posts reveal a very good grasp of patent law, but likely won’t satisfy developers or keep Apple from trying to stop Lodsys. Read more »
App Store developers who offer in-app purchasing are receiving threats of legal action today. The threats accuse devs of patent infringement regarding Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism, but the patent holder appears to be targeting independent developers individually instead of going after Apple itself. Read more »
Brightcove announced Monday that it has been granted its first U.S. patent, covering the publishing and distribution of digital media online. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded U.S. Patent Number 7,925,973 to Brightcove, giving some backing to the online video distribution firm’s intellectual property. Read more »
Thursday, Apple filed a patent application for “personalized fitness services” on a handheld device, focusing on exercise in a gym setting. Features would include how-to videos for equipment, as well as the ability to check on classes and possibly schedule training sessions. Read more »
Google has bid $900 million for Nortel’s patents, and in the process, appears to be starting its own war with the patent system. However, underneath its high-minded rhetoric about keeping people free to innovate, Google is beefing up its war chest to ensure control over Android. Read more »
Apple has recently been awarded a patent for “administering and maintaining a network-booted operating system.” This could point to the development of a cloud-based Mac OS X. If it comes to pass, what would a cloud-based OS X actually look like and how will it work? Read more »
Apple has filed suit against Motorola, claiming the Droid-maker infringed on patents held by Apple relating to smartphone technologies. It’s a return fire gesture by Cupertino, since Motorola filed suit first against Apple last month, claiming it had violated 18 patents. Read more »
A new patent the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office just approved was filed in 2008 by Apple and prevents users from sending and receiving “objectionable” text messages. The patent, officially called “Text-based communication control for personal communication device,” essentially prevents what’s known as “sexting.” Read more »
Today, Motorola filed suit regarding three complaints against Apple over patent infringements. The complaints deal with antenna design and other associated smartphone technologies covered in 18 patents held by Motorola. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Apple’s legal problems. Read more »
Following on from Oracle’s surprise acquisition of Sun, Stephen Jannise did some crystal-ball gazing and came up with a list of companies that could be potential targets for Oracle. He contends that the Sun move shows that Oracle isn’t afraid of doing deals in unexpected areas Read more »
Wowd, a real-time search engine, may not have figured out how to get its own service to scale to a large audience yet, but it’s about to get some validation that it’s on the right track — in the form of two patents. Read more »
The U.S. PTO today published a patent application from Verizon Communications detailing how to offer market-based spot pricing for cloud computing. The application could be significant indication that Verizon plans to offer spot pricing for its cloud, or it could be just another overzealous patent effort. Read more »
Microsoft has been awarded a patent on a virtual assistant called “Guardian Angel” that would monitor a user’s behavior and take action to help improve their health and protect them from danger, including monitoring their heart rate and doing background checks on people they speak to. Read more »
HTC has finally spoken out regarding the pending lawsuit Apple launched against the smartphone maker regarding its use of multi-touch as an interface navigation mechanism, and around 20 other technologies. It should surprise absolutely no one that the Taiwanese company doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the iPhone […] Read more »
A little-known white-label mobile social network company is suing Google and Facebook for patent infringement. Wireless Ink, maker of Winksite, says it owns the intellectual property for enabling users to join social networks from their mobile phones through a patent awarded in October 2009. Read more »
Via Apple 2.0, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner asserts in a research note that Apple’s lawsuit with HTC over the iPhone interface was the culmination of “blunt talks” with other phone manufacturers. According to Reiner, starting in January Apple began closed-door discussions with OEMs regarding the company’s […] Read more »
UPDATED TiVo shares are rocking this morning, up more than 40 percent after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found Dish and EchoStar in contempt of a permanent injunction against it for infringing on TiVo patents. “Because we find that the district […] Read more »
Facebook was on Tuesday granted a U.S. patent for aspects of its news feed, as was first reported by AllFacebook. The patent is particularly valuable because news-feed style communication has become pervasive since it was launched on Facebook. Read more »
YouTube might reach profitability this year, which means it’s time for parent company Google to figure out ways to make it even more profitable. That might happen by making it even easier for small advertisers to build overlay ads to run over YouTube videos, according to […] Read more »
Palm is applying for a U.S. patent on the concept of notifying of a mobile device based on the proximity of another one. But so is Apple, and likely even more companies down the road. Read more »
Steve Jobs is “extremely happy.” But it’s not because Psystar is dead. And it’s not because he’s been named CEO of the Multiverse or some other such end-of-year award. He’s happy because that Tablet he’s been working on almost exclusively since he returned to Apple in […] Read more »
The Russian visual search site Quintura has been awarded a patent for a way to display search results that it claims a minor feature of Google infringes. CEO Yakov Sadchikov said Quintura plans to enforce the patent and is working with its lawyers to approach Google. Read more »
Blockbuster and Netflix Win a Patent Suit; a judge found that the DVD-by-mail services do not infringe on a patent owned by Oklahoma-based Media Queue. (Video Business) Next New Networks’ Bobby Miller Headed to Sundance; the Indy Mogul host’s short film TUB was accepted to the […] Read more »
In a decision made final last week, Apple was ordered to pay out $27.1 million to OPTi, a semiconductor company that now deals only in licensing its intellectual property. The decision came down from Eastern District of Texas court judge Chad Everingham, and it is a […] Read more »
InformationWeek reports that a third-party MacBook power adapter manufacturer is being sued by Apple for allegedly violating one of its patent designs. On Monday, Apple filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Media Solutions Holdings in federal district court in California. Apple says that the company is […] Read more »
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday published a patent application Apple made way back in 2008 for “Pushing a User Interface to a Remote Device.” So, then…Smart Remotes. Cool! MacRumor’s Eric Slivka reports that the patent’s lead inventor is William Bull, now Yahoo’s Senior Director […] Read more »
Apple apparently isn’t exclusively devoted to the idea of finger-based multi-touch input on all its devices, a recent patent applications shows. The patent application, found by Apple Insider, describes the use of a pen-like stylus to operate an “ink information” input system, and references tablet computing […] Read more »
Did you know that a startup called Vidyo powers Gmail’s video chat feature? Not many people do, and that seems to be by design. There’s a tiny little reference to Vidyo’s participation in the product when you install it, though when I talked to Vidyo today […] Read more »
Halloween has come early this year, and I’m not talking about today’s release of Windows 7. Engadget reports (and I find it difficult to share this with you, dear readers, because I know it will cause you discomfort), in April last year, Apple filed a patent […] Read more »
