While we’re talking patent trolling, let’s talk about the global Apple-Samsung battle. Apple has been suing Samsung in courts around the world, claiming that the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 rips Apple’s patented design of the iPad, which consists of, um, a rectangle with a screen on one face. How they got a patent for that is beyond us, but that template has prompted judges in Australia and other countries to block sales of the Galaxy Tab until the case is decided. Samsung’s getting pretty fed up with it all, and it today, it threatened to withdraw from Australia altogether if the injunction wasn’t lifted soon.
Think Apple’s patent war against Samsung is ballsy and ridiculous? You’re right – it is. But there’s an even worse patent troll sculking around, and it’s much more sinister; while Apple and Microsoft are busy targeting other megacorporations, the Deleware-based Innovatio IP Ventures, LLC, is busy suing any mom-and-pop restaurant or hotel franchisee that offers Wi-Fi to its customers.
VIA Technologies is unleashing its legal beagles at Apple for allegedly infringing on three microprocessor-related patents and has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. District Court of Delaware. The patent infringement allegations extend to Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Apple TV devices, as well as associated software.
Despite claiming that Linux infringes on over 235 of its patents for a number of years now, Microsoft has always promised to deal with competitors that make Linux-based products with a fair degree of restraint. Of course, this only applies as long as such competitors don’t “free ride on our innovations” and refuse to sign licensing deals (case in point: Motorola). Anyways, this approach seems to be producing the desired results as more and more companies are falling in line. The latest company to sign a Linux patent-protection deal with Microsoft happens to be Casio.
Mosaid Technologies, an intellectual property and technology licensing firm based out of Canada, has filed a lawsuit against DRAM makers Eplida Memory, Buffalo Inc., and Axiontech in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division. In the lawsuit, Mosaid accuses all three firms of infringing on six of its semiconductor memory patents.
If Google is one of the most prominent Linux stalwarts around, Android is undoubtedly the public face of its love affair with the open source operating system. But its Linux affection runs deeper than that as the Internet behemoth uses the OS on everything from back-end servers to employee machines. Now, that deep-rooted love is beginning to cost Google, for a jury has fined it $5 million for infringing on a patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,893,120) held by Texas-bases patent troll Bedrock Computer Technologies.
A federal judge in Tyler, Texas this week ruled that Apple didn't infringe a patent owned by Mirror Worlds LLC, throwing out a $625.5 million patent infringement verdict over how documents are displayed on a computer screen, according to a Bloomberg report. At the same time, the judge did uphold the validity of the three Mirror Worlds patents, but said the damage award was too high.
The patent row between Redmond and Canadian firm i4i has been a patent disaster for the former. Microsoft’s remaining hopes now rest on the U.S. Supreme Court, which in November, 2010 granted Microsoft’s petition for writ of certiorari for review of the case. But i4i, which has been winning (feel free to replace with the recent neologism “bi-winning”) pretty much all the battles in this patent war, once again seems assured of victory. According to the Canadian company, 22 amicus (or friend-of-the-court) briefs , including one by the United States government, have been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in its support.
We have some major news from the Dutch theatre of Sony’s patent battle with LG. The temporary ban that was imposed on the import of PS3s into Netherlands last month has now been lifted. Sony has plenty to cheer about as a bulk of its PS3 shipments designated for continental Europe and UK come through Rotterdam and Schiphol. But this isn’t the proverbial last laugh for Sony. Read on to find out what’s next for the two companies.
-
Technology
Entertainment
-
Music
-
Creative
Sport & Auto
- About Future
- Jobs
- News
- Advertising
- Digital Future
- Privacy Policy
- Cookies Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Shop
- Investor Relations
- Contact Future
© Future US, Inc. 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, California, 94080. All Rights Reserved.