Rambus, a memory technology licensing company, announced today it has signed a patent license agreement with GPU maker Nvidia that will be valid for the next years. As part of the five-year deal, the two sides agreed to settle all outstanding claims against each other, ending what had become a bitter and stretched out legal dispute over various patent innovations.
While Microsoft is all about its Windows Phone platform, Google's Android OS is proving a profitable nugget for the Redmond software giant. What some people don't know is that Microsoft collects license fees from several manufacturers who use Android in their products, and in exchange Microsoft agrees not to sue them for infringing on its IP. LG is the newest company to ink an Android license agreement with Microsoft, whose patent portfolio now covers nearly three quarters of all Android smartphones sold in the U.S.
When we wrote a streaming music services round-up on Maximum Tech, we only briefly touched on Grooveshark, the popular service based around user uploaded tracks. “And, um, we're still not completely sure that Grooveshark is legal,” was the extent of our coverage. As it turns out, newly revealed emails from Grooveshark CEO Sina Simantob prove that, well, the company’s entire business plan hinges on its dubious – at best – legality.
Another day, another story about the ridiculous patent wars being waged by big name tech companies. Samsung’s been the target of hostility by Apple in courtrooms around the world, as the Cupertino company files injunction after injunction to try and block Galaxy Tab sales over an infringement claim. Maybe that legal specter was hanging over Samsung’s shoulders; today, the Korean company agreed to a royalty deal that will have Samsung giving cash to Microsoft whenever Samsung sells an Android-based device.
Irony, your name is Anonymous. The hacktivist group tosses DDoS bombs around with callous ease in an apparently never-ending quest against government and corporate “tyranny,” all behind the smiling, blank Guy Fawkes mask featured at the end of “V for Vendetta.” Sure, a silent crowd full of masked Anons can be creepy, but here’s the funny part: each Guy Fawkes mask bought by an Anon member puts cash into megacorporation Time Warner’s pockets.
Microsoft makes Windows, a closed source platform. Suse builds open source Linux distros aimed at enterprise users. On the surface, these two would appear the unlikely couple, but the two companies just renewed a pact dating back to 2006 that has Microsoft purchasing and reselling Suse licenses. As part of the four-year contract extension, Microsoft has agreed to invest $100 million in new Suse Linux Enterprise certificates for Microsoft enterprise customers receiving Linux support from Suse.
AMD set out to squash recent rumors suggesting the chip maker was interested in licensing ARM technology for use in tablets and other mobile devices. John Taylor, director of client product and software marketing at AMD, made it clear than an ARM license isn't in AMD's cards, and that his company is more than content to develop its own computer chips based on the x86 architecture for mobile devices.
LG Electronics is looking to be on the move and has turned to ARM to help get them going. A new licensing agreement between the two firms provides LG with access to ARM's Cortex A15 and A9 processors, as well as ARM's Mali T604 GPU and CoreLink interconnect and system IP. Look for LG to use these parts in a whole host of devices, including digital TVs, set-top boxes, smartphones, tablet PCs, and smart grids.
Denver-based patent pool outfit MPEG LA, which licenses the H.264 codec, has called upon holders of “patents essential to the VP8 video codec” to join the VP8 patent pool it’s trying to assemble. As some of you might recall, MPEG LA has time and again questioned VP8’s royalty freeness, all along threatening a VP8 patent pool. I guess you are familiar with the "hit the jump" routine.
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