Fujitsu’s bank balance may be a little lighter today, since Acacia Research Corp. has reported that subsidiaries of both companies have signed a settlement deal over patent disputes. As usual, Acadia is keeping tight-lipped about exactly what the pate…
Apple rested its side of the case in its main lawsuit against Samsung on Monday, and with the switch of focus came a small sacrifice. While Samsung failed in a Hail Mary bid to have the suit dismissed, it successfully argued that a few devices should…
Samsung is having slightly better luck in Munich than it is here the US in its ongoing legal battle with Apple. The high court upheld a previous ruling that Cupertino’s patent relating to “list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotatio…
Although Apple scored a big victory in its efforts to muck up Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales last week, it will have no such satisfaction for HTC Android devices just yet. All Things D reports that the International Trade Commission has denie…
World-weary tech journalists and over-worked judges aren’t the only people sick and tired of endless patent litigation — big-name tech CEOs are getting fed up as well. Broadcom CEO Scott McGregor sat down with Mobile World Live this week and ripped both patent trolls and his fellow tech companies for being too litigious in the realm of intellectual property. “I believe it’s shameful that you can make more money suing people than on creating great products,” McGregor said. “Hopefully our governments are paying attention to that because that’s not a good outcome for any of us. Intellectual property has value, Broadcom invests in that. We do it primarily to create great products and I hope most of us can get this settled
If HTC wants to be strong to the finish it will need more patent spinach. That’s why HTC chairwoman Cher Wang vowed this week that her company would file for more patents on its technology so it can stand up to Apple IP suits, reports All Things D. “Apple is a company with ‘big muscle’ and is famous worldwide,” she said. “In the United States particularly, it will be able to stop us by all means. This is our challenge. But we are not afraid of challenges because we have innovations. We will apply for patents in different fields, and we will also purchase different kinds of patents, such as those owned by S3 Graphics Co.” Previously, HTC had tried employing
Like a lot of folks, Berkeley Law professors Jason Schultz and Jennifer Urban are tired of seeing excessive patent litigation in the tech industry, especially when it’s initiated by patent holding firms that produce no actual technology of their own. To remedy this, they’ve created the Defensive Patent License project in which companies would allow one another to use their patents freely under the condition that they don’t sue one another. Essentially it works like this: if two companies are tired of spending ungodly sums of money suing one another they can agree to put their patents into the general Defensive Patent License. Doing this will not only give them access to each other’s patents for free but will also
Judge Richard Posner, one of the most distinguished legal minds in the United States, sounds absolutely fed up with Apple and Motorola Mobility for wasting his time with their patent suits. In fact, Posner was apparently so perturbed with the arguments from both companies that he said their cases should be dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be brought before a court again. Per GigaOm, Posner also tore into Apple and Motorola’s reasoning and was particularly incensed by Apple’s argument that unlocking a device with a finger tap infringed upon patented swipe-to-unlock technology because “a tap is a zero length swipe.” “That’s silly,” Posner replied. “It’s like saying that a point is a zero-length line.” Posner also recently posted a
The word on the street is that Apple could file for a temporary restraining order against the Samsung Galaxy S III on Friday. Naturally, Samsung probably wouldn’t be too happy with that, which has led FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller to speculate that Samsung will try to enact revenge by filing similar complaints against Apple whenever it comes out with its newest iPhone. But if Samsung is really hell-bent on going after Apple, why is it waiting around for the iPhone 5 to come out? One answer may lie in the strength of Samsung’s patent portfolio. If, as is expected, the next iPhone has LTE connectivity then it could play directly into Samsung’s hands. iRunway, a research firm that specializes in analyzing
The latest shocking twist in the Android Patent soap opera (“As the Droid Turns?” “The Young and the Wireless?”) is definitely going to ruffle some feathers: Apple wants all of HTC’s new Android phones banned from being sold in the United States. Per AppleInsider, it seems that Apple has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission claiming that 29 new HTC phones are infringing upon U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647, which describes a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data.” AppleInsider says that the patent is specifically for a system that automatically detects and identifies certain data on a device such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses and hyperlinks. If the ITC grants Apple the
