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SanDisk busted at IFA, forced to take down display DAPs
Now we've never actually manufactured a product ourselves, but if we had, and we were showing off said product at a major European trade show, we'd be mighty embarrassed if a bunch of lawyer-types showed up at our expensive booth and told us to stash the goods out of public view. Well apparently that's exactly what happened to Sansa-manufacturer SanDisk over the weekend at Berlin's IFA exhibition, after an Italian patent management company called Sisvel convinced a German prosecutor to issue an injunction against the US's number two DAP seller. No surprises here, but the beef that Sisvel has with SanDisk centers around certain MPEG audio patents that many big-name companies -- including Apple, Archos, and Creative, to name just three of over 600 -- have taken seriously enough to license, with SanDisk being the one notable exception. SanDisk and Sisvel are already locked in heated legal battles in several large countries, and until the courts pick a winner or SanDisk decides to pay up, Sisvel wants to make sure that they can only show pictures of their products at events like IFA -- not exactly the best way to impress potential buyers. If we were SanDisk in this situation, we might take a page out of iPod Shuffle knockoff manufacturer Luxpro's book -- you know, the ripoff artists who got busted by Apple legal at CeBIT -- and comply just long enough for the hired guns to leave the building, followed by a mad dash to put the players back up on their displays and put our big fake sales grins back on our faces.
Apple pays $100m to Creative in patent lawsuit settlement
Remember all that talk of Creative beating Apple to the punch with patenting various elements of the iPod's UI? Today these talks came to an end, with Apple whipping out the checkbook, and Creative (I'm assuming) throwing a party. That's right: Apple has shelled out USD $100 million to Creative for "a paid-up license to use Creative's recently awarded patent in all Apple products." Fortunately, Apple might be able to get some of that cash back if Creative is successful in suing their way to profitability licensing their patents to anyone else.There is yet another bright side for Apple, however: Creative has also hopped on board the 'Made for iPod' program, and has a slew of accessories on the way for everyone's favorite little DAP, such as speaker systems, headphones and a family of X-Fi 'audio enhancement products.'Isn't it great when everyone can just get along and play nicely together - especially when $100m says so? Check out Apple's press release for the rest of the details on the settlement.[via MacMinute]
MS sued over controller design
Some no-name company from Texas is dragging Microsoft and Nintendo to court over 12 supposed patent infringements related to game controllers, that amazingly went un-noticed until now. Sony, fresh off a losing court battle over force feedback technology, seems to have avoided the dual shakedown this time around. Who holds the patent on transparent extortion schemes?[Thanks Randy]
Samsung working on atmospheric broadcasting
You never know what you'll find when digging through the US Patent files, and it has been discovered that Samsung has filed one of their own in hopes of using the atmosphere as an antenna. Researchers and employees in Korea are devising a method to use the ionosphere -- the layer of the atmosphere at around 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface -- as a medium for "long distance communication" without the need for expensive satellites. The ionosphere already plays a role in communications as a "radio reflector" that bounces low frequency radio signals from sea to shining sea. But by launching UHF signals behind a 1GHz carrier signal, scientists hope to alter the behavior of the ionosphere to create an alternating current, which can then be modulated at a particular frequency in order to create an antenna of global proportions. While the precise utility of such an antenna is not yet clear, we're glad it's in the works, as this sounds like just the thing to solve those dropped call blues -- or not. [Via Textually]
Sony hit with another patent infringement suit
More legal woes for Sony: the computing and consumer electronics giant is being sued by Pennsylvania-based Agere Systems over a number of devices spanning several product categories that, you guessed it, may be infringing upon some eight different Agere patents. Specifically, Agere is claiming that the PSP, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 -- along with several Vaio, Handycam, Walkman, and Location Free TV models -- are in violation of patents covering such varied technologies as a "wireless local area network apparatus" and "barrier layer treatments for tungsten plugs," whatever those are. Furthermore, the integrated circuit component manufacturer believes that Sony "willfully" violated the patents, and is thus seeking damages that could end up being three times what non-willful infringements would warrant. For its part, Sony is putting up a multi-pronged defense: its lawyers are first trying to get a judge to invalidate all of the patents and make the whole mess go away quickly; but if they do turn out to be valid, Sony is claiming that it's in the clear anyway due to cross-licensing deals dating back to 1989 with AT&T and Lucent Technologies (from whom Agere was spun off) that cover seven of the eight patents in question. Our uninformed legal opinion? Without knowing all of the specifics, it's difficult to ascertain who's got the stronger case here, but we can say that Sony's recent track record in fighting infringement accusations hasn't exactly been spotless, so as much as we'd love to cover yet another ugly, drawn-out court battle, maybe a quick settlement is the way to go with this one.[Via PSP Fanboy]
LA Times tackles Sony's "used games" patent
The LA Times, a couple months late to the story, has reopened the festering wound we like to call "the Sony used games patent." Rumors that the PS3 would incorporate technology that would prohibit the later sale of used games -- technology that was patented (#6,816,972) by Sony in 2000 -- have been making the rounds (and being denied) for some time. So what's left to talk about?LA Times reporter Dawn C. Chmielewski gathers some exciting quotes from familiar names like Michael Pachter, P.J. McNealy, and even an anonymous cryptographer! "I actually think they're toying with this idea ... Maybe they'll copy protect movies or music downloads." --Michael Pachter "While we believe it is unlikely that [Sony] will ban PS3 pre-owned games from being sold by the same chains that sell new PS3 games, we believe this issue remains under consideration." --P.J. McNealy "In the video game business, it would be suicide for someone to do this. It's actually possible Sony filed this because they wanted to keep people from doing that." --anonymous cryptographer Gotta love that little conspiracy theory at the end: maybe Sony gobbled up this tech to prevent other companies from taking advantage of consumers? Yeah, cause Sony -- a giant conglomerate with their fingers in everything from content to technology to life insurance -- they're cool like that.[Via /.]
Patent system changes in the works?
It doesn't take the intellect of a US Senator to notice that there's something wrong with our patent system, but it looks like those Senators might finally do something about it. Nothing has even made it out of committee yet, so the actual passage of a patent reform bill still seems quite far off, but there is definite talk going on in Washington as to what patent reform would look like, and there seems to be enough common ground for some good to come of it. The leaders of an intellectual property panel within the Senate's Judiciary Committee had a hearing Tuesday to discuss ideas for new patent legislation, and it was well attended by panelists from tech, pharmaceutical, biotech, independent inventors, academics, and finance. There was plenty to say, and it seems most agree that there needs to be a new system to allow challenges to patents shortly after they're approved in order to avoid costly litigation later on. Tech and financial service companies are also pulling for a second "window" to allow them to dispute patents once a patent infringement suit is filed, something that would've probably aided RIM in their recent fight. Not everyone else is so hot about this idea, so we'll see if this makes it into the final legislation, but it seems any action towards reform would be helpful at this point, so we'll take what we can get.
James "father of the LCD" Fergason gets $500K award, defends patent-holders
You may not know who James Fergason is, but chances are you're reading these words on a screen that he helped to create. In the 1960s, while working at Westinghouse, Fergason developed many of the core technologies used in the production of LCD displays. In honor of his pioneering work, Fergason was just awarded the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson prize, an annual award for inventors. Fergason plans on donating the prize money to independent inventors, who he believes get the short end of the stick when dealing with large corporations. "I think that what they want to do is get something for nothing," he said." After working at Westinghouse, Fergason started his own business to commercialize LCD technologies, and helped create the first LCD watches, and today -- not surprisingly -- manages a company that licenses his patents to manufacturers.
Patent holder Visto wants a share of that RIM pie
You know, it has been a bit RIM-patent-fiasco-free around these parts lately. But no worries, since Visto has decided to whip up a bit (more) patent trouble of their own. Fresh off a victory over Seven Networks regarding the same four patents that they claim RIM is infringing, and already mired in legal fights with RIM competitor Good Technology and Microsoft, Visto is looking for more, and they think they can get a payout from RIM. Visto wasn't clear as to what RIM technology is infringing on their patents, but they do mention "Visto's intellectual property serves as the basis for this industry's birth." Quite the strong words when going up against RIM, who had a slight influence on the birth of the wireless email industry if our memory serves us right. RIM believes that the Visto patents are invalid, and that Visto's victory over Seven Networks was in regards to a different type of technology than RIM's. Their patents are also dated before Visto's, but there's really no telling where this could go after the fiasco the NTP case turned out to be. We'll keep you posted.
Philips sues Kodak over patent infringement
It's been a mixed day over at Philips: on the one hand, they had the pleasure of announcing a new offspring, Liquavista, but now they've been forced to air some dirty laundry concerning fellow consumer electronics manufacturer Kodak, taking the NY-based company to court for allegedly infringing upon a sixteen-year-old patent. Philips claims that while several digital camera manufacturers license the JPEG compression technology protected by patent number 4,901,075 (refer to the schematic above for all of the technical details), Kodak refuses to do so, even though many of their products supposedly take advantage of the "Huffman codeword" magic outlined within. Financial details of the suit have not been made public, but Kodak doesn't sound like it's going to budge, saying that it will defend itself "vigorously."[Via Reuters]
Patent infringement lawsuit hits Apple
In a move that screams 'I was waiting for the right time to mention it,' Burst.com yesterday filed a patent counterclaims lawsuit against Apple Computer, claiming that their iTunes, iTMS, iPod and QuickTime Streaming infringe on four of their patents.It appears that this time around Apple actually fired first. Earlier this year, Apple asked the courts to render Burst's patents invalid, which sparked this counterclaim they filed yesterday. Burst has stated that they had hoped to avoid the courts and negotiate a "reasonable license fee," but it seems that a court is exactly where these two companies will need to settle the dispute.Check out Macworld's article if you're interested in more details surrounding the case.
LG applies for "drawer phone" with motorized slider
LG has just filed a patent for a new type of slider phone wherein a motorized, protective covering containing the microphone and antenna slides up to reveal the screen and keypad, and of course, extend the antenna. Called a "drawer-type" phone, this design supposedly offers numerous advantages over traditional form factors, taking the best attributes of different phone styles while attempting to minimize their shortcomings. For instance, a drawer phone maintains the compact profile of a flip phone or slider while in a bag or pocket, while at the same time situating the mic closer to your mouth when in-use, a la some of the better candybar mobiles. You also get the screen protection and dual display benefits of a clamshell, because the sliding section contains a clear window, but none of the finger strain involved with manually opening and closing the flip. This design definitely seems to have its benefits, but since this patent has a long way to go before being approved, we're not sure when or even if we'll ever see it in production.[Via Mobiledia]
MS patents 360 TV?
Microsoft's 5000th patent intends to make Xbox Live celebrities of us all. Most of us are familiar with the Gotham TV feature in Project Gotham 3, but MS wants to take the concept to a whole 'nother level. Patent No. 6,999,083 concerns a "System and method to provide a spectator experience for networked gaming." From the summary:The present invention provides a system and method that generates a spectator experience corresponding to an occurrence of an associated game or event. The spectator experience can be generated in real time as a function of the associated game or event. Alternatively or additionally, the spectator experience could include portions of a prior occurrence of an associated game or event, such as to provide highlights, instant replays, or other enhancements for the resulting spectator experience. Each occurrence of a game or event varies over time in response to contributions and/or interactions of one or more participants (e.g., players) of each respective game or event. ...Another aspect of the present invention provides an infrastructure or portal (e.g., a Website) to access spectator related services. The portal may provide information about the occurrence of one or more games or events. By way of illustration, the portal may include a user interface, which presents information about available occurrences. The available occurrences can correspond to real time games or events or to delayed versions of games or events. The portal also can include visual and/or audio information about the available occurrences including, for example, identifying the name for each game or event, the number of active participants, the number of spectators, etc. The portal further includes user interface elements that can be activated to connect to a spectator experience corresponding to a desired occurrence of a game or event. I hope this means that one day you'll be able to log in at the office and watch your autistic brother impress the universe with his skill at Rockstar Presents Bocci Ball. How far can you see this type of feature going?[via Xboxic]
