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Motorola scales back ITC case against Xbox, drops WiFi patent complaints
Since taking over Motorola Mobility, Google has started to rein in some of the manufacturer's legal adventures. First, it struck a licensing deal with Apple in Germany, then it withdrew an ITC complaint against the company in early October. Now Microsoft is benefiting from its new, seemingly less lawsuit-happy adversary. Moto has decided to pull its WiFi-related patent claims from a complaint against the Xbox 360. That still leaves its H.264 patents on the docket, though, we wouldn't be surprised to see the case disappear completely before the two companies go to trial in December. Microsoft claims it's entitled to a reciprocal license from Google due to an existing agreement between Mountain View and MPEG LA. German courts have already ruled that Motorola's claims regarding its H.264 patents are strong enough to issue injunctions against the Xbox 360 and Windows 7, however the company has been unable to enforce those sales bans due to ongoing investigations in the US.
LG, Sony drop patent infringement lawsuits, strike cross-licensing agreement
The testy patent battle between LG and Sony has finally come to an end, now that the companies have decided to lay down their arms and call a truce. In a statement issued today, an LG spokeswoman declared that the two parties have "agreed to drop patent infringement lawsuits against each other," adding that they've struck a cross-licensing deal on the TVs, smartphones and other gadgets in question. A Sony representative confirmed this, but did not offer further details. The spat began back in December, when Sony filed a complaint with the ITC over a handful of allegedly patent infringing LG mobile devices. The Korean manufacturer later struck back with an ITC complaint of its own, targeting Sony products like the Bravia and PlayStation 3. Now, however, the two have apparently learned how to play nice, though details on their settlement remain scarce. As soon as we have them, we'll pass them along.
HTC files patent complaint against Apple, asks for ban on iPhone, iPad, and iPod
We'd been wondering how and when HTC would respond to Apple's patent lawsuit, and here we go: the Taiwanese phone manufacturer just filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, asking for importation and sales of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod be halted due to alleged infringement of five patents. ITC complaints like this are pretty familiar territory -- you'll recall that Nokia and Apple have both asked for similar bans in their lawsuit against each other -- but the interesting wrinkle here is that HTC apparently hasn't filed a corresponding federal lawsuit. We'll see if that's the next step for HTC down the line -- for now, we're digging into what patents are involved in the ITC complaint, so stay tuned. Update: Gizmodo says it has a list of the patents in question, but the actual complaint hasn't hit the ITC database yet, so we can't confirm anything, and we don't know what's being pled with any specificity. We'll let you know when that happens.
Nokia brings Apple patent fight to the ITC, says most Apple products infringe
Looks like Nokia's pulling all the stops in its patent fight with Apple: in addition to the already-filed lawsuit, the Finnish company has now filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, alleging that "virtually all" of Apple's products infringe one of seven patents covering user interfaces, cameras, antennas, and power management. Ouch. Of course, this is a pretty standard tactic as far as major patent disputes go -- this is just a second front of the same war, and we'd expect Apple to lodge an ITC complaint of its own in due time. What could make this interesting is the ITC's power to ban imports of infringing products in relatively short order, so we'll be keeping a close eye on this one.
