PatentSuit
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Jury awards i4i $200 million in damages in Microsoft patent suit
It's not quite on the level of some of Microsoft's past patent showdowns, but a Texas federal jury found yesterday that the company should pay a still hefty $200 million in damages to Canadian software firm i4i Ltd for some supposed wrong doing. That company had alleged that Microsoft knowingly infringed on one of its patents in both Word and Vista, which apparently concerned "manipulating a document's content and architecture separately." For its part, Microsoft unsurprisingly begs to differ, and says that "the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid," adding that it will, of course, "ask the court to overturn the verdict."
Nokia fires off another patent suit in Qualcomm's direction
If you've been a bit disappointed by Nokia's offerings of late, it's probably because the firm is shifting out of the cellphone industry and into the legal environment. Okay, so maybe it hasn't called it quits in the handset game just yet, but this ongoing battle with Qualcomm is beyond ridiculous. Before Qualcomm even had time to swallow the previous counter-suit filed against it, Nokia is firing away again, and this time it's claiming that its opponent "has illegally used six of its technology patents in its Brew smartphone and MediaFlo mobile TV chipset products." Additionally, Nokia's CTO got vocal by stating that this case was just "another example where Qualcomm has effectively copied Nokia's innovations." While we're sure it's getting difficult to decipher which counter-lawsuit belongs to which original grievance, this particular one apparently links to an April 2nd filing where Qualcomm "claimed that Nokia had infringed three patents." C'mon folks, why not settle this like they do in the Alabama State Senate? [Warning: Read link requires subscription][Via Yahoo]
Vonage might have a patent workaround, not promising anything
What's that you say? A faint glimmer of hope on the horizon for Vonage? Surely you jest! But that unlikely-as-it-seems scenario appears to be just the case, with Vonage following up recent Q1 financial results of shrinking losses ($72.3 million, as opposed to $85.2 million last year) and growing sales ($195.9 million, up 64 percent) with news of a heretofore-thought-impossible technology solution to its patent woes. "We will begin rolling these workarounds out shortly, hopefully in the next few weeks, and we believe they will work," says CEO Jeffrey Citron. Analysts point out that Vonage isn't making any promises, and the company is far from out of the woods, but we're guessing Vonage wouldn't be bragging about something like this in the midst of appealing the Verizon patent suit if there wasn't some truth to it. The update will apparently be low-cost, just involving software downloads.
