11/28, 1:43am
Apple and LG claim Alcatel-Lucent already paid, suit is a 'double-dip'
Yet another patent battle involving Apple began today in a California court. Alcatel-Lucent's Multimedia Patent Trust has accused co-defendants Apple and LG Electronics in 2010 of violating its patents involving video compression technology. The suit involves techniques used in the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 compression technologies that have been passed to the Alcatel-Lucent patent holding company over the years, and are being asserted against Apple's entire product line.
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05/14, 3:28pm
LightSquared
LightSquared, the company that attempted to build out a nationwide 4G network, has filed for bankruptcy in a Manhattan court on Monday. The project was met with resistance from regulators, who argued that the proposed spectrum would interfere with GPS signals. The company was facing other troubles, with its chief Philip Falcone, stepping down at the end of April at the request of the company's shareholders.
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01/19, 7:00pm
Ends legal battle waging for over four years
Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent have ended hostilities in a long-standing patent infringement battle. Yesterday, the two companies jointly asked Judge Marilyn Huff, the federal judge presiding over the case in a US District Court, to grant a motion to end all claims in the matter. The case had been ongoing for over four years.
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07/29, 6:50pm
Microsoft again said violating Alcatel-Lucent tech
A San Diego federal court found on Friday that Microsoft had to pay Alcatel-Lucent $70 million for allegedly violating a long fought-over patent. Jurors decided that Outlook copied a patent for a touchscreen form. Microsoft had been hoping to keep the damage down to $5 million if it lost, arguing that the patent covered a minor element of picking a date, but the court took Alcatel's view that the feature played a "central role."
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05/12, 11:45am
Verizon short on network outage details
At the Business Innovation Forum in California on Wednesday, Verizon Wireless executive director of LTE didn't provide any direct reasons for the network's outage late in April. When pressed, Brian Higgins told the audience Verizon took steps to ensure the problem won't reoccur, but did not provide any details on why it happened or which of its vendors is to blame, ConnectedPlanet wrote on Wednesday. The company's 3G and LTE networks went out for 24 hours across the US.
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02/08, 5:20pm
Alcatel-Lucent intros lightRadio cell tower tech
Alcatel-Lucent said on Tuesday its new lightRadio cellular hardware will double the capacity of cell sites while shrinking their size and halving the cost. The towers also require huts at their base that house antennas, and lose efficiency by moving the signal using the tower's wires. Alcatel-Lucent's used its Bell Labs R&D division to develop the new technology.
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12/21, 1:40pm
Alcatel sues Apple, Canon, LG, TiVo over videos
Alcatel-Lucent's patent holding group Multimedia Patent Trust on Monday sued Apple, Canon, LG and TiVo for allegedly violating patents on AT&T video codecs. The Southern District of California complaint accused the companies of violating as many as four patents with their hardware and software. Virtually all Apple devices and software are allegedly copying the patents, including its Mac line, Final Cut apps, iLife, QuickTime and most iPads, iPhones and iPods.
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11/17, 5:10pm
Emergency Broadcast System coming to cell phones?
The Emergency Broadcast System that will alert TV viewers of any emergencies may soon arrive on cellphones, Alcatel-Lucent said on Tuesday. The company is developing a Broadcast Message Center that will let government agencies send mass information regarding local, state or national emergencies. These text messages can warn users of anything from road closures to hurricanes and tornadoes.
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10/18, 8:55pm
Wholesale Apps Community now 48 members strong
The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) founded earlier this year has just aggregated 32 new members. The newcomers include Opera Software, Oracel, Fujitsu, Rogers and China Unicom, among others, joining the original 24 companies such as LG, Samsung, Telefonica and Orange. The goal of the alliance is to create a common, global app store that will offer software for multiple platforms and devices.
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07/26, 12:35pm
ATT expects HSUPA speeds fixed in 2-3 weeks
AT&T today confirmed reports from readers that its 3G upload speed bug is being fixed. Alcatel-Lucent has developed a patch that restores upload speeds on the iPhone 4 and other devices that support faster HSUPA upload speeds. The fix should roll out over all the affected areas over the next two to three weeks.
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07/12, 1:10pm
VoLGA Forum outs new specifications for LTE calls
The VoLGA Forum has updated specifications for its Voice Over LTE standard. The new specs include mobile voice and SMS service over 4G, unlike the current standard, which only supports data. The changes will bring with them Voice over LTE via Generic Access (VoLGA) using 3G, HSPA-based networks, with users also getting the option of emergency calls even when there isn't a SIM card.
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07/07, 12:05pm
ATT says 2pc of HSUPA towers hit by Alcatel glitch
AT&T today explained the sudden upload speed drops that had plagued iPhone 4s and other devices on its network. The carrier claimed that the issue was sparked by a "software defect" in Alcatel-Lucent's 3G base station hardware that stalled uploads for any device that supports HSUPA. A fix is being developed, a spokesman said, but there was no estimated time for when it would be resolved.
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11/04, 6:55pm
One Voice initiative aims for interoperability
A long list of cellular providers and manufacturers, including players such as AT&T, Verizon, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson and Samsung, have all agreed on standards for voice calls and SMS messages distributed across LTE networks. The companies have collaborated on a technical profile, the One Voice initiative, that aims to ensure widespread compatibility between different products.
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10/02, 4:45pm
O2 set to test LTE technology in six countries
Telefonica, which owns the UK-based wireless provider O2, announced that it will begin trial testing of its Long Term Evolution mobile broadband technology in six European countries. The 4G technology will allow for faster wireless data speeds, and the trials will involve hardware from six manufacturers including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens Network, and ZTE.
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09/11, 3:30pm
Alcatel's $358m MS damages seen excessive
Microsoft today claimed a partial victory in its ongoing patent disputes with Alcatel-Lucent. Judges for the US Federal Court of Appeals overturned a $358 million award given to Alcatel for Microsoft's alleged infringing of a patent through a calendar grid feature in Windows Mobile, Money and Outlook. The officials maintained that Microsoft had still violated the patent but that the monetary damages didn't relate to the actual damage to Alcatel's business and that Alcatel hadn't provided the necessary proof.
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04/14, 7:40pm
Microsoft vs Alcatel claim
The U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) has rejected several claims included in a patent held by Alcatel-Lucent, following a request by Microsoft and Dell to have the patent re-examined in May of 2007, according to IDG. The interim decision is the latest chapter in a lengthy dispute, potentially leading to a successful appeal of a federal court ruling that asked Microsoft to pay $358 million in compensation to the telecommunications company.
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05/21, 9:40am
MS Loses Alcatel Suit
Microsoft on Wednesday lost a lawsuit it had filed against Alcatel-Lucent over patents relating to telephone-to-Internet technologies. The US-based International Trade Commission has absolved Alcatel-Lucent of claims that it had infringed four patents for the bridging technology, further reversing an initial decision that had found the company culpable of infringing on at least one patent.
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05/09, 11:45am
Courts reinstate lawsuit
A federal judge has reinstated one of two dismissed patent disputes against Microsoft and Dell from French-American telecommunications partnership Alcatel-Lucent. CNN Money writes that the San Diego district court made an error when deciding the definition of a "terminal device", so the case is being presented again to the federal court system. The dispute is situated over a communication protocol that allows a computer and a device to exchange information.
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04/23, 2:45pm
Xbox in Alcatel Lawsuit
Alcatel-Lucent today began court proceedings for the next of its lawsuits against Microsoft. The plaintiff argues in its complaint that Microsoft's Xbox game systems violate a 1993 patent relating to the code for generating video frames. The US/French partnership says that it will use its jury trial to demand $1.50 for every alleged misuse of the patent but is not yet clear as to which uses apply to the suit. The suit could potentially apply to each Xbox sold before the conclusion of the trial.
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04/18, 12:45pm
Alcatel phones in US
The French-based telecom Alcatel is releasing its first official phone for the US, the E206a. The phone is being carried by the GSM-based MVNO O2 Wireless -- not to be confused with Europe's O2 -- and uses an extremely basic candybar design, having only a dual-band receiver, and virtually no other features. Aside from foregoing technologies such as 3G, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi, the 206a lacks even EDGE or GPRS data support, and does not have a USB port.
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04/04, 11:10pm
MS to Pay Alcatel 368m
Microsoft late on Friday was asked by a US federal court to pay $368 million in compensation to Alcatel-Lucent over alleged infringement of two patents relating to touchscreen form and stylus technologies. Although the plaintiff had demanded $1.75 billion and initially accused Microsoft of infringing four patents, a jury in the San Diego courtroom has reduced the amount after deciding that Microsoft is not culpable of violating two video control-related patents.
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