PatentInfringment
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Motorola, Samsung score in legal battles against Apple
You win a few, you lose a few. This week, Apple was up against the ropes in the patent infringement fights going on all over the world. In Germany, Motorola won a verdict against Apple when a court in Mannheim ruled that Apple had violated one of its 3G-related patents. This could be serious for Apple, possibly banning sale of 3G devices including iPads and all iPhones prior to the iPhone 4S. What can Apple do to avoid the ban? Motorola could choose to license the patent to Apple, or Apple could decide to change future designs to get around the patents. It's expected that Apple will appeal the loss, and it is also trying to invalidate the 3G patent and several others in a Federal Patent court in Munich. If Apple wins that case, the decision would invalidate this Motorola victory and leave it defenseless against claims that Apple has made. Meanwhile, the Samsung/Apple fight in Australia continues. Apple had tried to get a stay on an injunction down under that would have essentially blocked the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 through the critical holiday shopping season. Australia's High Court heard arguments from both companies this morning, and decided in favor of allowing Samsung to start sales of the iPad lookalike on Monday.
Apple coughing up $8 million to Personal Audio in iPod playlist settlement
Ah, the Eastern District of Texas. Home to tumbleweeds, free range cattle and boatloads of patent trolls. Personal Audio, a patent licensing company with a highfalutin' facility in Beaumont, Texas has become the latest outfit to claim victory over a major CE company, with Apple being asked to hand over $8 million to settle a tiff involving iPod playlists. Bloomberg reports that a federal jury in the Lonestar state found that Cupertino's iPod players infringed on patents for "downloadable playlists," right around two years after Personal Audio initially filed the claim for a staggering $84 million. We're told that the inventions cover "an audio player that can receive navigable playlists and can skip forward or backward through the downloaded list," and while Apple unsurprisingly stated that it wasn't actually using those very inventions, that hasn't stopped the courts from disagreeing just a wee bit. Now, the real question: are Sirius XM, Coby and Archos -- also named in the original suit -- going to be facing similar circumstances?
Apple files motion to intervene in Lodsys patent lawsuit
Apple's already made its position on the whole Lodsys situation pretty clear, and it's now taken things one step further after the patent holder hit iOS developers with a lawsuit at the end of last month. As noted by Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, Apple has filed a motion to intervene in the case, and he says Apple is "fairly likely" to be admitted as an intervener based on precedent. In the case that happens, Apple has also concurrently filed its answer to the complaint and its counterclaim, which unsurprisingly line up with its earlier position on the matter: that Apple has already licensed the patents in question on the developers' behalf, and that they are "entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys." Hit the source link below for the complete filing, along with FOSS Patents' analysis of it.
DISH / EchoStar ordered to pay TiVo $190 million in patent infringement case
We're a bit hesitant to call this one done given the history involved, but a federal judge in Texas has dealt DISH / EchoStar yet another serious blow in its long-standing dispute with TiVo, and this time he's taken a number of other measures that could cause EchoStar to finally rethink its workaround-litigate strategy. The big setback for EchoStar, however, is the one-two punch of $190 million in damages it's been ordered to pay TiVo and an order to disable the "infringing function" on all but 193,000 DVRs now in the hands of subscribers. The judge also found that EchoStar's recently-implemented workaround technology still violated the patent in question and, as a result, he's ordered EchoStar to inform the court before it decides to try its hand at another "design-around" of the infringing patent. For its part, TiVo says that it is "extremely gratified by the Court's well reasoned and thorough decision," while DISH / EchoStar would only say that it plans to appeal the court's decision and file a motion to stay the order with a federal appeals court.Read - The New York Times, "Court Awards TiVo $190 Million in EchoStar Patent Case"Read - TiVo Statement on U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Decision
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 soliciting ITC's help in barring US Qualcomm chip imports
In the case that simply seems to never end, Nokia and Qualcomm are at each other's throats yet again, and yes, it's still over those darned GSM / WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets. The latest development involves Nokia asking the US International Trade Commission to "bar the import of some Qualcomm chipsets to the United States, alleging that they are infringing five Nokia patents." Of note, it was stated that the ongoing battle is "worrying investors and the industry on both sides of the Atlantic," but at this point, we think the two are just collaborating to create the longest running, most uninteresting legal hissy fit in history.
Target Technology sues Sony for Blu-ray-related patent infringement
As if Sony's legal team hasn't dealt with enough this year already, they're getting dialed up yet again for alleged patent infringement, and this time the California-based Target Technology Company is the one pointing the finger. Apparently, the firm is suing several segments of Sony for "deliberately and willfully" infringing on a patent that Target was granted in 2006. The plaintiff claims that products "marketed under the Blu-ray name infringed on a patent for reflective layer materials in optical discs," and more explicitly, "specific types of silver-based alloys with the advantages (but not the price) of gold." The suit was actually filed as an "intellectual property" matter rather than one of chemical imbalances, and while Target Technology is purportedly seeking a "permanent injunction preventing Sony from violating its patent rights in the future, as well as damages with interest," we won't be surprised if a sizable check from Sony's wallet makes this all disappear.[Via GameSpot, thanks Evan]
