Motorola filed a new patent infringement suit of its own against Apple today, and it targets the iPhone 4S and iCloud. Motorola cites six patents that it has used against Apple before as proof of Apple’s infringement. Interestingly, Google’s merger agreement with Motorola prohibits the later from filing any new patent suits without getting permission from Google first. Presumably, this means Google gave Moto the go-ahead to sue Apple.

There was a time when film was king, and Kodak was riding high in the camera market. What a difference a decade can make. Kodak is now rumored to be planning an orderly Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing. The paperwork could be official as early as later this month. Kodak employs 19,000 people, but layoffs are likely in the event of Chapter 11.

Apple is accustomed to being on the winning side of patent infringement suits, but a new ruling in Germany has turned the tables on Cupertino. The court has found that Apple’s iPhone and 3G iPad products infringe a Motorola patent covering the implementation of GPRS mobile technology. This isn’t the first win for Moto, but this one does give it the legal authority to ban sales of the infringing products in Germany.

Apple has the patent on “slide to unlock”, but Google isn’t sitting on the sidelines when it comes to seemingly inconsequential user interface tricks. The Android OS maker has been granted a patent on its pattern unlock feature, or as the patent calls it, “Touch Gesture Actions From A Device’s Lock Screen.” This has been a staple of Android phones since the beginning, and now it’s locked down, more or less.