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Nokia sues Apple over a slew of patent infringements
Nokia announced today that it has sued Apple for patent infringement in Germany and the US. According to the suit, Apple did agree to license a few Nokia patents in 2011, but has declined offers since then. "Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products," said Ilkka Rahnasto, Nokia's head of Patent Business, in a statement. The suit was filed in Regional Courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. A total of 32 patents are involved and cover a range of technologies that include everything from the display and user interface to chipsets and video encoding. Apple is no stranger to patent infringement lawsuits. It paid $24.9 million in a Siri patent lawsuit earlier this year and $625 million in a Facetime patent lawsuit as well. Of course, it's had the occasional victory too, like when it sued Samsung for patent infringements and won.
Supreme Court sides with Samsung over Apple patent penalty
The Supreme Court ruled that Samsung's violation of design patents made by Apple can only involve components, not entire products. This could mean a severely reduced penalty that the Korean company will have to pay... and a rare bit of good news for the troubled company.
Apple loses FaceTime patent retrial, ordered to pay $302.4 million
In the continuing saga of Apple vs. VirnetX, Reuters reports that a federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas has ruled in favor of VirnetX, ordering Apple to pay $302.4 million in damages. This particular case has been going on since 2010, and in the last verdict, a jury ruled Apple owed more than $600 million to the "non-practicing entity (read: patent troll) over technology used in FaceTime. However, in August the appeals court threw that ruling out, saying jurors may have been confused by references to the first iteration of this case.
Apple patents stylus that doubles as a joystick, air mouse
A simple, high-quality pressure-sensitive stylus is all well and good for tablets, but can such a device really meet the needs of a desktop user? That seems to be the question Apple's asking with its latest patent. The company's latest technology patent dreams up a do-everything stylus capable of being a drawing device, air mouse and even a joystick.
Huawei sues T-Mobile over 4G patents
It took a while, but Huawei finally has a response to T-Mobile's lawsuit from 2014. The Chinese mobile giant is suing T-Mobile US for allegedly violating 14 patents on 4G wireless technology. Supposedly, the Uncarrier rejected a 2014 offer to license the patents and brought talks to a halt until Huawei decided to sue this year. Huawei isn't asking for damages, mind you. Instead, it just wants the court to declare that it met obligations to license patents at a fair and reasonable rate -- in theory, T-Mobile wouldn't have much choice but to take the offer after that.
Apple faces Caltech lawsuit over WiFi patents
Apple's legal troubles with schools aren't over yet: Caltech has sued Apple and chipmaker Broadcom for allegedly violating four WiFi-related patents. Supposedly, most Apple devices (including the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch) from the iPhone 5 onward use Broadcom chips that copy Caltech decoding and encoding technology to improve data flow. As with most such lawsuits, the institute is calling for both damages and a ban on offending hardware.
Huawei sues Samsung over cellphone patents
No, the fighting between top smartphone makers isn't done just yet. Huawei has sued Samsung in both China and the US for allegedly violating its patents on cellular technology and software through its cellphones. Unlike what you see in many such lawsuits, though, the Chinese tech leader isn't demanding a straight financial penalty -- it wants a cross-licensing deal where the two sides share patents, much like the ones it has with "dozens" of other partners.
Creative pushes for US bans on several smartphone makers
Creative has a long history of wielding its patents against other tech companies (just ask Apple), but its latest effort might top them all. The US International Trade Commission is investigating Creative's complaints that seven smartphone makers (BlackBerry, HTC, LG, Lenovo/Motorola, Samsung, Sony and ZTE) violate its patents. Allegedly, all of the companies are imitating Creative's hierarchical menu system for media playback, much as the iPod supposedly duped Zen players a decade ago. If successful, the ITC dispute would ban the sale of at least some of these companies' devices... and given the sheer scope of the complaint, you'd probably notice the absences on store shelves.
TiVo and Rovi close to merger deal, says NYT
Rovi is closing in on a deal to buy DVR maker TiVo for an unknown price, according to sources from the New York Times. The exact terms aren't yet known, but TiVo reportedly has a market value of around $750 million. If the name "Rovi" isn't ringing a bell, the company makes interactive TV guides that are used by 18 million or so TV subscribers. You may remember it better for its much-hated DRM copy protection, when it used to be called Macrovision. TiVo, of course, is known (and mostly liked) for ad-skipping DVR products like the 4K TiVo Bolt.
Google patents AR-based pop-up books
Google has filed a pair of patents with the USPTO that aim to reinvent how we interact with printed media. The first patent is for an "Interactive Book" with motion and pressure sensors embedded within its pages. The sensors would launch visual assets via augmented reality whenever the reader activates them, say, by turning a page. The user wouldn't need actual AR glasses; instead a small device seated on the book's spine would project the visuals onto the pages. An embedded speaker would further enhance the onpage action.
Apple's $120M patent victory over Samsung overturned on appeal
The never-ending Apple vs. Samsung patent wars just had another chapter written today, long after most of us stopped caring. A US appeals court overturned the $120 million jury-appointed verdict that was awarded to Apple way back in May of 2014. Specifically, the court said that a variety of older Samsung phones (including the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, a host of Galaxy S II variants and the Galaxy S3) didn't infringe upon three Apple patents. The patents in question covered swipe to unlock, auto-correct and a quick link feature that lets links in one app open up another app.
Apple ordered to pay $625 million in FaceTime patent lawsuit
VirnetX has been a thorn in Apple's side (and a good chunk of the tech industry) for the better part of this decade. It first sued Apple in 2010 over the alleged use of virtual private network (VPN) patents in FaceTime video chats, and has been successful enough in court to wring hundreds of millions of dollars out of the folks in Cupertino. And today, it's striking again: a court has ordered Apple to pay $625 million dollars for purportedly using VirnetX's security tech in both FaceTime and iMessage. That's actually more than the $532 million VirnetX had wanted, and a huge windfall for a company that has little business outside of lawsuits (aka a patent troll).
Apple wins a US sales ban on ancient Samsung smartphones
Many will tell you that patent lawsuits are useless as competitive weapons, in part because the years-long legal process makes any product bans pointless -- by the time you get a ban, the offending gear is off store shelves. And Apple is learning that first-hand. Judge Lucy Koh has awarded Apple a long-sought US ban on certain Samsung smartphones over alleged patent infringements, but all of the target devices are so old that you're highly unlikely to see them on store shelves. Let's put it this way: the most advanced of the bunch is the 2012-era Galaxy S III, which isn't easy to find even if you go searching through your carrier's bargain bins.
Wearable maker claims Apple and Fitbit stole its tech
There's a longstanding legal tradition in tech: a small company gets patents on a nice idea, finds only modest success selling the idea and finally sues the living daylights out of its bigger rivals. And unfortunately, that's carrying on in the wearable era. Valencell is suing both Apple and Fitbit over claims that they both infringe on four patents for accurate health monitoring, including "light-guided" devices like heart rate monitors.
New Apple patent hints at near-universal mobile payments
A recently filed patent application suggests that Apple has bigger plans for its peer-to-peer mobile payment system than just iMessage. The company is apparently also looking at integrating it into other iOS services including via "phone call, text messaging conversations, an email thread, calendar events," according to the filing. Of course, companies file patents all the time that end up going nowhere so don't hold your breath for this to be a thing in the near future.[Image Credit: Getty]
Judge says NVIDIA violated Samsung's patents
NVIDIA's attempt at suing its mobile chip rivals into oblivion isn't really going according to plan. On top of losses in its own cases, the graphics pioneer is now facing the threat of a sales ban: a US International Trade Commission judge has ruled that NVIDIA is infringing on three Samsung patents. This isn't a final decision, but the Tegra maker now has to hope that the full ITC has a change of heart when it reviews the case a few months from now. Its main consolation is that one of the patents expires in 2016 -- any ban on products using that patent would only last for a few months at best.
Twitter has lots of ideas for drones, patent form reveals
All of a sudden, a Twitter drone doesn't seem like such a crazy idea. The social network applied for a patent earlier this year for a "Messaging-enabled unmanned aerial vehicle," which describes pretty much what you'd expect: A drone that can post media to a Twitter feed of its own. Beyond that, Twitter users would also be able to control certain elements of the drone with their own posts. That includes its subject, location, orientation and more. When asked for comment by CNBC, a Twitter rep simply said, "Two words: Drone selfies." As always, a patent application doesn't mean we'll see exactly what's described, but they're a good indicator of what companies are planning for the future.
Bloomberg: Swatch is hoarding smartwatch patents
We've snarked at Swatch for waiting forever to release a smartwatch, only for the finished article to be a regular watch with an NFC chip beneath the dial. Bloomberg Business believes that the Swiss firm is playing the long game by quietly hoarding a pile of (173) patents related to the technology. The news agency has dug deep into the paperwork to learn that Swatch holds rights to plenty of useful concepts including proximity sensors and data-transmitting batteries. Sources claim that the watchmaker has enough IP in its back pocket to make a device on its own, unlike TAG Heuer, which had to partner with Intel.
Jawbone countersues Fitbit over activity tracker patent 'abuse'
Jawbone isn't letting up on its plan to sue Fitbit into oblivion any time soon. The wearable maker has responded to a Fitbit patent lawsuit (itself meant as a response to Jawbone) with a countering suit of its own, accusing Fitbit of abusing its patents in a "plainly meritless" case. Of course, as we've seen in previous tech lawsuits, the patents are really incidental here -- this is ultimately about pressuring Fitbit into settling a case it might otherwise try to fight in court.
ITC finds that Samsung and Qualcomm didn't violate NVIDIA patents
NVIDIA's first patent lawsuit campaign isn't exactly going according to plan. The US International Trade Commission has ruled that Samsung and Qualcomm aren't infringing on NVIDIA's graphics patents. The judge rejected two of the patent claims outright and deemed a third patent invalid. There's still a chance that the ITC will rethink its decision following a review in February, but this steals a lot of the thunder out of NVIDIA's legal war -- Samsung and Qualcomm aren't facing a looming government sales ban that could force them to settle the civil dispute. NVIDIA says it's still "confident" that it'll emerge triumphant, but that may be putting on a brave face... especially when Samsung's counterattack is still underway.
