These days it seems every time the word ‘patent’ is mentioned it is usually followed by ‘lawsuit.’ In a refreshing change of pace, Google is doing just the opposite. Today the company has taken the Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge, which states that they will not take legal action against distributors and developers of open-source [...]
Google just announced the Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge, a new initiative whereby the company has promised not to sue developers, distributors, and users of open source software utilizing Mountain View’s patents “unless first…
Earlier today, the Amerian Civil Liberties Union addressed a pointed letter to Pennsylvania’s Governor Mifflin School District after a student discovered her high school was blocking access to select LGBT-related websites. The…
The Pirate Bay raised eyebrows last week when it announced that it would sue CIAPC, an anti-piracy organization, for copying its website. While The Pirate Bay’s rhetoric was rich with irony — a spokesperson told TorrentF…
As the prolonged legal battle between Apple and Samsung drags on, Reuters is reporting that Tim Cook never wanted it to be this way. According to an in-depth look at the rivalry between two tech giants, Apple’s CEO was initial…
In January, it got a lot harder to sue Skype. If you had checked its Terms of Service last week, you would have found a new sweeping class action waiver, a huge headache for anyone thinking of taking the service to court. The …
A week ago, Jonathon Coulton discovered a leak of a song from an upcoming episode of Glee that imitated his cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” note-for-note. That episode aired last night and showed not only that the “c…
Score another win for Apple’s (AAPL) rivals: The United States Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday struck down one of the company’s most important patents. As AppleInsider reports, the USPTO rejected Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 7,844,915, the patent that Apple used to successfully sue rival Samsung (005930) for alleged intellectual property infringement this past summer. The patent itself detects whether a finger or multiple fingers is scrolling on touch screens. It’s worth noting that while this patent was rejected, it’s not invalidated and Apple may still be able to keep this patent in tact in the future. This is the second major Apple patent that the USPTO has struck down in recent months as the office in September temporarily invalidated the company’s patent for
Although earlier reports indicated that United States Federal Trade Commission was ready to sue Google for anticompetitive actions with the patents it acquired from Motorola, Politico is now reporting that the company has entered into talks with federal regulators and a settlement may be announced as soon as this week. Politico speculates that an agreement will force Google (GOOG) to license the industry essential patents it acquired from Motorola on fair, reasonable and nondiscrimination terms to competitors such as Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT). Politico’s sources note, however, that the final settlement may allow Google to continue seeking injunctions through court actions around the world. The Federal Trade Commission has also been investigating Google over its business practices concerning its popular search engine. It
Kim Dotcom may soon have his revenge. The New Zealand Herald reports that the Megaupload founder has been “cleared to pursue a case for damages against the police and the Government Communications Security Bureau in a judgment which has opened the Government’s handling of the criminal copyright case for its harshest criticism yet.” The latest ruling, handed down by New Zealand’s High Court at Auckland, comes just a little less than a year after government officials raided Dotcom’s mansion and shut down his hugely popular file-sharing website. A New Zealand judge earlier this year ruled that the Dotcom raid had been carried out illegally and said “that the police, in executing the warrants, have exceeded what they could lawfully be authorised
