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ATD: Samsung could have licensed Apple patents in 2010
Sitting through a patent trial day after day is a tough assignment for AllThingsD's Ina Fried, as today's technical testimony led the judge to inquire of the jury if anyone needed caffeine. But the flip side of the eyelid-drooping legal process is the occasional scoop. Tonight ATD reports that Samsung had an opportunity to license Apple patents at a per-device fee way back in 2010. Apple executives had told Samsung brass that the Korean company's phones and tablets were infringing Apple IP in the summer of 2010. Keeping in mind that Samsung was (and remains) a key Apple parts supplier, the US company apparently swallowed hard and made an offer to cross-license relevant patents in October 2010. "Samsung chose to embrace and imitate Apple's iPhone archetype," reads Apple's presentation to Samsung. "Apple would have preferred that Samsung request a license to do this in advance. Because Samsung is a strategic supplier to Apple, we are prepared to offer a royalty-bearing license for this category of device" (emphasis Apple's). Samsung would have owed royalties of $30 on each affected phone and $40 per tablet (dipping to $30 per over 2 years), with some steep discount options. Samsung's entire line of touchscreen phones would have come under the proposed agreement, including Symbian and Bada phones in addition to Android-based units. Apple estimated the total 2010 license payments at US$250 million, noting that "[these] figures pale in comparison to Apple-Samsung's balance-of-trade." You can read the whole deck here, and it's fascinating. Given the high costs of litigation, expert witnesses and adverse publicity from the ongoing dispute -- balanced out with the advantage of being free and clear, worldwide, from injunctions and patent challenges from Apple -- it all makes one believe that maybe Samsung should have thought longer and harder about taking the deal. (For a giggle, check out slide 17 -- as Mark Gurman points out, Apple's "iPhone 4" looks a lot like it's showing the screen of an original iPhone instead...) Photo by kasia | flickr cc
Microsoft and Sharp strike licensing deal for use of exFAT technology in Android-based devices
Microsoft already has licensing agreements with the companies accounting for the vast majority of Android devices on the market, but it's not done just yet. The latest to come on board is Sharp, which has signed a deal that will allow it to use Microsoft's Extended File Allocation Table file system (otherwise known as exFAT) on its Android-based devices -- that's a slightly more specific agreement than most others, where the contents haven't been disclosed. While Sharp isn't exactly a major smartphone player here in North America, it is in Japan, where it had a market share of 17.5 percent in 2011 (second only to Apple). As with other similar deals, this agreement will see Microsoft receive royalties on all Sharp Android devices sold, although neither party has commented on the specific terms. You can find the official word after the break.
Honeywell next up to get a patent license from Microsoft, goes the Android handheld route
Stop us if you've heard this one before: a company that wants to start using (or keep using) a Google OS strikes a patent licensing deal with Microsoft to avoid the legal barrage that will invariably follow if it says no. It's Honeywell singing the tune this time, and the company has reached an agreement that will let it use Android or Chrome OS on devices like a new edition of the Dolphin 7800 rugged handheld (shown here) without perpetually looking over its shoulder. Neither side is going into the specifics, although Microsoft has steered Honeywell into using its boilerplate copy about royalties trading hands. The truce won't help the prices of Honeywell devices; even so, it's good news for developers and customers who've been part of the company's official Android feedback program. We're still yearning for the day when we can get root access on a Honeywell thermostat.
Rovi lands Google Fiber patent license deal, keeps program guides flowing
Rovi considers itself the master of TV program guides everywhere -- even if some disagree -- so it's almost inevitable that the company would negotiate a new patent license with Google. The deal puts all of Google Fiber's TV interfaces in the clear, whether it's the set-top box near the TV or the less traditional interfaces found on the web and the Nexus 7 remote. Considering Rovi's existing connection to Google TV, the new pact may cement the company and its partner in Mountain View as surprisingly close friends.
OLPC XO Touch 1.75 to use Neonode tech, take multi-touch on world tour
The One Laptop Per Child's project just got one step closer to updating its venerable XO portable through a newly-struck licensing deal with Neonode. The XO Touch 1.75, a slight rebranding of the as yet unreleased XO 1.75 we saw last year, will use Neonode's MultiSensing to give the laptop a multi-touch screen that's both very responsive and eco-friendly in the same breath. Even as it samples finger input at up to 1GHz, the new OLPC system's 300 DPI display will still use under 2W of power and remain viewable in bright sunlight -- students can even wake up the new model with a gesture instead of using anything so crude as a power button. As important as these advances are to bringing touch to remote schools, we still have some questions about the release schedule and the cost. The XO 1.75 was originally due this year, but we don't know if the Neonode pact will alter the timetable or hike the target price. We've reached out to the OLPC team for comment and will update if there's new details.
Qualcomm axes its own Mirasol production, will only bring some devices to market itself
Talk about flying under the radar. While everyone's focus on Qualcomm's results last week centered on the mobile chip business going gangbusters, the company quietly revealed during its fiscal results call that it's backing out of producing Mirasol displays itself. CEO Paul Jacobs instead wants the company licensing out the butterfly-inspired screens to interested companies and will limit its direct commercialization to "certain" devices. The company isn't explaining why beyond the plan more closely matching "addressable opportunities," although the absence of any widescale launches (and unconfirmed but repeated talk of low yields at The Digital Reader) suggests that factory output never quite reached critical mass. We're hoping that someone picks up the color e-reader torch before too long and delivers more than just the reference model derivatives we've seen to date.
Google Nexus 7 tablet gets mid-July arrival dates from Staples in US and Canada
It's no secret that both the 8GB and 16GB variants of Google's Nexus 7 have been set to ship in two to three weeks from pre-orders placed at its Play store. While retailers like Gamestop are also remaining mum on specifics, Staples has stepped up with actual arrival dates on its US and Canadian websites for the 16GB model. Apparently, fast fingers within the United 50 that lay out $250 to reserve one of the Jelly Bean-loaded slates by July 10 can expect it to arrive as early as the 13th -- that said, Staples notes that this "limited quantity" of initial stock is set to ship "between July 12th and July 17th." Heading to Staple's site for the Great White North, the tablet is listed to hit shelves in-stores and online on the 23rd for 259 Canadian dollars, however, there's no word on when online orders might ship. We'd still advise you to take these dates with some NaCl at this point, but it's likely a safe to bet that you'll have yours before August if you place an order soon.
Facebook and Yahoo! friends again, agree to patent cross-license
And so, the Facebook v. Yahoo! courtroom tussle has come to an end. The two Silicon Valley giants have agreed to a legal truce and cross-licensed a bit of each other's IP, meaning that's one less legal donnybrook we have to worry about upsetting consumer sensibilities. Not only have the two settled their differences over their respective advertising and social networking patents, but they've also agreed to an ad sales partnership, too. Now, if only all those other, myriad tech litigants could amicably settle their differences with such alacrity. Perhaps they should all take a gander at the PR after the break to see how it's done.
Nokia claims Nexus 7 treads on its WiFi patents, wants a little dough for that Jelly Bean (updated: Nokia statement)
We're fans of the Nexus 7. Nokia, however, isn't quite so keen. It claims to The Inquirer that the ASUS and Google joint project is using Nokia WiFi patents without a license. The two companies never even asked, Nokia argues. As it's a question of standards-based patents, it's more likely that Nokia will simply cough politely and ask for a royalty rather than launch into yet another legal battle -- still, it's not exactly a minor accusation. We've reached out to both ASUS and Google for comment, but we can't imagine that either will be happy with the potential hit to their respective bottom lines. Sending a slice of what's left to Finland could be more than a bit painful when that $199 Jelly Bean tablet is already operating on virtually non-existent margins. Update: We also reached out to Nokia to get an official statement on the matter and it had this to say: Nokia has more than 40 licensees, mainly for its standards essential patent portfolio, including most of the mobile device manufacturers. Neither Google nor Asus is licensed under our patent portfolio. Companies who are not yet licensed under our standard essential patents should simply approach us and sign up for a license.
Apple and Liquidmetal hug it out, lengthen their pact until 2014
The deal between Apple and Liquidmetal was originally supposed to be a short-term fling. Technically, it expired in February this year, less than two years after the couple first met. There must have been a spark, as the two have just decided to extend their licensing deal through to February 2014. Of course, simply having a deal isn't the same as putting it to use, and there's no certainty that we'll see anything exotic materialize out of it: the last time Liquidmetal's extra-sturdy alloy was used in an Apple product, it wound up in a SIM card ejector tool. Still, Apple must have found something it wants to make in order to keep its union going forward, whether it's another tiny pack-in with an iPhone or (once costs allow) something a tad larger.
Amazon reportedly adding music rights to Cloud Player, could close gap with iCloud
Amazon's Cloud Player app just made its way to the iPhone and iPod touch, but the company's web-based music service still lacks the license deals that make Apple's iCloud a more seamless experience. While iCloud scans a user's hard drive to match songs and stream them from iTunes, Cloud Player requires listeners to manually upload copies of their music to the cloud. According to CNET's "industry sources," Amazon is looking to close that gap by inking agreements with major labels and has already made deals with EMI and Universal Music Group. This story is still very much in the rumor phase, but obtaining those licenses certainly sounds like a logical step for a service meant to make enjoying files across several devices easier.
An ARM core in an AMD device? It just happened, but not the way you think
Yes, you heard right. AMD just added to ARM's burgeoning heap of gold coins, having licensed the British company's Cortex-A5 design for use in its own hardware. While this might sound like a dramatic capitulation on the part of the struggling giant, particularly after yesterday's news, it probably isn't. AMD says it'll use the ARM component solely for adding better security features to its next generation of business-focused laptops and tablets. A spokesperson told us the company's "commitment to x86 hasn't changed," referring to the fact that it'll continue to use its regular in-house chip architecture for the primary task of running applications. The Cortex-A5 will be one tiny core squeezed in amongst everything else on the future 28nm silicon. It'll be dedicated to running ARM's proprietary TrustZone technology, which protects sensitive apps from tampering -- stuff like mobile payments, DRM, and nudge, nudge corporate documents. Rather than invent its own system for doing the same thing, AMD reckoned it'd be easier to work with ARM's, and who can blame it? If we remember rightly, even Intel made a similar call five years ago. [Tentacles via Shutterstock]
PrintWarcraft.com now prints your character on shirts
You can now get your character printed on shirts at PrintWarcraft.com. Actually, you can print any character, as long as you know the character and realm names. Several sizes and styles are offered, along with a few neutral colors. The shirt builder has many options, including poses, logos and nameplates. You can move each item around on the graph to your liking. It's almost too customizable for me -- too many options. Some of the tools are a little awkward, but I'm assuming that will be ironed out soon. PrintWarcraft gets its info from the Armory, so your character has to be at least level 10 in order to be able to print it. And just like the Armory, sometimes changes you make to your character in-game can take a while to show up. If you create an account, you can keep screenshots of your characters. But these screenshots are not directly linked to the Armory, so if you change your character's look and want to print that instead, you need to create a new screenshot linked to your new look. PrintWarcraft.com also offers personalized mousepads and posters. If you're looking for something to replace the customized WoW product hole left by SwagDog, this online store should fill it.
Pegatron licenses Microsoft's patent portfolio for Android and Chrome devices
Microsoft may make a ton of money by selling Xboxes, operating systems, and other software to consumers, but it also pads its bottom line by monetizing its IP. Its newest patent profits will be coming from Pegatron Corp. -- a Taiwanese ODM that makes parts for a plethora of others, including Apple, ASUS and HP -- as the two companies have entered into a licensing agreement for devices running Android and Chrome OS. The agreement covers e-readers, smartphones and tablets, with Pegatron paying Redmond royalties of unknown amount. So, the Ballmer licensing bandwagon continues unabated, but we just hope all this new-found cash will be put to use creating fantastic new products instead of funding more courtroom conflicts.
The Hague to Samsung: no injunction for 3G patent infringement if Apple's willing to FRAND license
Since it's been more than 24 hours since the last bit of news in the ongoing legal battle between Samsung and Apple, we figured you could do with another litigation revelation. Late last year, the Hague shot down Sammy's request to prevent iPads and iPhones from being sold in the Netherlands. Today, the Dutch court went a step further, telling the Korean company that it can't pursue any other injunctions based upon its FRAND 3G patents as long as Cupertino's willing to talk about licensing them. Not only that, it went on to hold that those patents don't apply in Sammy's case against the iPhone 4S due to the theory of patent exhaustion. The allegedly infringing bits in the handset are made by Qualcomm, who licensed the technology directly from Samsung -- granting Apple protection under the license as a third party beneficiary -- and Apple prevailed using arguments not unlike those it made in a suit it recently filed against Motorola. Score one more legal victory for Tim Cook and company, but as you already know, the war is far from over.
Pub owner Karen Murphy wins appeal in TV-decoder battle against Sky
It's been a few months since we last heard about the legal kerfuffle between Sky and pub owner Karen Murphy. In case you've been out of the loop, it all started when the UK broadcasting giant went after Murphy for using what was deemed to be an illegal method for screening FA Premier League matches at her, or any, bar. The Greece Nova decoder, which is considered a legal bit in the privacy of your own home, was helping Murphy bypass Sky's £480 ($740) required monthly fees for bar owners and saving her over £350 ($555) in the process. Now, over $260,000 in legal fees later, Mrs. Murphy's conviction has been overturned by the relentless High Court. The ruling allows her to keep using the troubled Greek gadget to screen any EPL game without facing any troubles -- except the occasional drunken fracas. So, now you know where to go the next time you're in Portsmouth and want to catch a good ol' footy match.
Apple sues Motorola over Qualcomm license, makes us dream of a world without lawyers
There are literally no words (at least no family-friendly ones) to describe the insanity that is the ongoing legal war between practically every player in the mobile scene. You can't lay the blame entirely at Cupertino's stoop either -- Motorola, HTC and Samsung all deserve plenty of our ire as well. The tablet and smartphone industry appears to be trying to sue itself out of existence, and Apple's filing today against Motorola Mobility in the US District Court of Southern California is just latest in a long line of legal ploys likely to inspire you to slam your head against a wall. The purveyors of all things "i" has accused Moto of breaching a licensing contract with Qualcomm when Moto hit Apple with four patent claims in Germany. That license covers wireless technology Qualcomm uses in its MDM6610 chip, and also purportedly covers Qualcomm's customers who purchase and use said chips. Naturally, that bit of silicon is a component in the iPhone 4S, so Apple argues that it's safe under the terms of the contract. Furthermore, Cupertino claims Motorola is barred from suing under the doctrine of exhaustion -- which is a legal defense that once a patented item is sold (i.e. when Moto licensed its technology to Qualcomm), the patentee's control over that item is exhausted and it can't sue anyone else for infringement.So, this new suit filed in San Diego seeks to prevent Motorola from enforcing its claims in Deutschland. It also aims to keep Motorola from suing Apple for its use of Qualcomm components incorporating licensed Moto technology anywhere else. Confused? We won't lie, we are a little bit too, but all is revealed in the complaint found at the source link below.
Macworld | iWorld 2012: XMG Studios working on a location-based Ghostbusters game
XMG Studio is an indie iOS developer in Toronto that's gotten to work with some very decidedly un-indie licenses. They have made a few popular and original iOS games already (including Cows vs. Aliens and Cannon Cadets), but lately they've been getting more and more involved in licensed work. They delivered an Inspector Gadget game last year, have an app out about the Canadian TV series Degrassi High, and now they've wrangled the official Ghostbusters license for iOS. And VP of Game Development Adam Telfer told us this week at Macworld that they're making a location-based game with it, of all things. The game will be out this summer, and will use the iPhone's location tech to have players track down virtual ghosts in their real-world environments, both searching them on a map and then using the iPhone itself as a PK meter. They're using a Foursquare-style service to place the ghosts, too, so a ghost might appear at your regular Starbucks stop, you'll get a notification, and once you search for it, you'll be able to earn items and upgrades for searching for and capturing more ghosts. Location-based gaming is a genre that's kind of foundered on the iPhone, but Telfer says he and XMG have some ideas they're excited about, and he thinks the Ghostbusters franchise is a perfect fit. The game is set for a "soft launch" in Canada in a few months, with a launch in North America sometime in June. As for XMG as a company, Telfer says that "this year we exploded." While the company started out with just six people working on an original game, the office is now up to about 45 employees, and rather than original IPs, Telfer says XMG is looking more for licensing bigger properties, and co-production on titles. Totally Amp'd is another example of that -- it's an app centered around a video series, where you can not only watch the video content, but also interact with the show and its characters in various ways. We'll look forward to that Ghostbusters app as well. XMG is definitely finding some interesting business deals -- hopefully their take on the location-based gaming genre will live up to the much-loved movie license.
Microsoft signs patent agreement with LG, now covers 70 percent of US Android smartphone market
Microsoft's patent-licensing ways continue, going after manufacturers of Android devices with wild abandon and, more often than not, wrangling them into (surely expensive) agreements. Latest to take the bait is LG and, interestingly, this one covers both Android and Google's little laptop operating system: Chrome OS. With this agreement Microsoft now covers 70 percent of all Android smartphones sold in the US, which is a quite startling figure. And, of course, one could interpolate from this that LG must have designs on making a Chromebook at some point in the not too distant future.
DriversEd app developer responds to Apple over pulled 'fake license' app
Though it was available on the App Store for two years, once the free "License" app came to the attention of a US Senator, it was doomed. Apple expunged the app from the store with little fanfare over complaints that License could be used "in a way that allows criminals to create a new identity, steal someone else's identity, or permit underage youth to purchase alcohol or tobacco illegally," according to Senator Bob Casey. DriversEd.com, developer of License, has issued a press release specifically addressing this concern. "DriversEd.com specifically and deliberately designed the app to prevent the creation of counterfeit identification," the release states. "By design, it would take more effort and expertise to modify the product of the DriversEd.com 'Driver License' app than to construct a counterfeit from scratch." In fact, with a low resolution of 72 DPI and "design elements [that] deliberately do not correspond to government issued ID," such as "'MOCK by DriversEd.com' in proximity to the word 'license,' " it seems highly unlikely that even the most cursory glance at fake licenses generated by the program would pass scrutiny. Comparing their screenshots against my old Ohio driver's license I can tell you that a bouncer, liquor store owner, or TSA agent would pretty much have to be legally blind to confuse a printed copy of a License-generated fake with the real deal. Not only are the colors, layout, and font all wrong on these License-generated fakes, but modern licenses are laminated, contain embedded holograms, and have many other security features designed to defeat counterfeiters. DriversEd.com believes Apple "pulled the app prematurely," and it's hard to argue with them. Show full PR text DriversEd.com's "Driver License" app exactly as dangerous as DNC's Mitt Romney $10,000 bill, at 72 dpi Oakland, California, Dec. 12, 2011 DriversEd.com today issued the following statement: In response to a letter from Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Apple has pre-emptively pulled DriversEd.com's free "Driver License" application from the Apple Store. Senator Casey's concern is that the DriversEd.com "Driver License" app might "facilitate lawbreaking," by giving users access to a "...high quality image resembling an actual drivers' license." The DriversEd.com "Driver License" app's output is only 72 dpi, which is in fact the same resolution as the $10,000 Mitt Romney Bill released today by the Democratic National Committee. DriversEd.com specifically and deliberately designed the app to prevent the creation of counterfeit identification. "By design, it would take more effort and expertise to modify the product of the DriversEd.com 'Driver License' app than to construct a counterfeit from scratch," says Founder and Chief Operating Officer Gary Tsifrin. Since 2009, the DriversEd.com "Driver License" free app has allowed users to put their faces on a low-res mockup of their state's license. The app is a digital-age version of using a photo booth at the beach. The product of using the DriversEd.com "Driver License" app cannot be mistaken for a fake ID because the design elements deliberately do not correspond to government issued ID. DriversEd.com designed the app to incorporate obvious layout differences, font and color discrepancies, and the words "MOCK by DriversEd.com" in proximity to the word "license." The DriversEd.com "Driver License" app contains none of the security features of a modern government issued ID. (For the security features modern driver's licenses contain and a brief, non-comprehensive inventory of the ways the DriversEd.com app did not incorporate those features, please see the fact sheet on DriversEd.com.) The app was carefully designed to provide a fun glimpse of what it would look like to have a driver's license of your own from any of the fifty states, but a deliberately inaccurate version. That's why DriversEd.com offered it for free, and marketed it in the "Game Zone" on the DriversEd.com site. In contrast to the fun "Driver License" app, DriversEd.com's core education mobile app is a full-featured test-preparation suite, which Apple featured in the app store (http://driversed.com/games/drivers-ed-iphone-app.aspx?navtr=topnav) and is also available for Android. DriversEd.com strongly supports Senator Casey's goal to maintain the integrity of government issued ID. As driver's education professionals, we work closely with state regulatory agencies, schools and families toward public safety on America's roads and highways. National security requires trustworthy, secure identification, and any resource that threatens the integrity of that identification should be shut down. However, in the words of Gary Tsifrin, "the DriversEd.com 'Driver License' app absolutely did not allow anyone to manufacture a fake driver's license, and we believe Apple pulled the app prematurely. We hope that in light of these facts Apple will take one more look at the DriversEd.com 'Driver License' app."
