02/13, 9:35am
Could signal escalation in Apple vs. Proview
Officials in the Chinese city of Shijiazhuang raided an unnamed Apple reseller over the weekend, reports claim. In all 45 iPad 2s are said to have been confiscated; despite the limited scope of the raid, Chinese news sources indicate that a number of other vendors have decided to hide their iPad stock rather than risk losing it. Shoppers should nevertheless still be able to buy iPad 2s from official and unofficial sources in the city.
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02/11, 1:40pm
Apple lawsuit vs Samsung expanded
An expansion upon what few details have been available from Apple's new Samsung lawsuit has suggested that it reaches more at the core of Android and less at Samsung's specific actions. Along with accusing Samsung of violating a newer unlock gesture patent than what was covered in Germany, a second patent for a "universal interface" for retrieving data appeared to Florian Mueller to accuse Samsung of violating Siri-style searches, where stitching together keywords presents just the immediately needed results. While Android on a base level doesn't do this, it would prevent Google from providing a narrower search method in Android.
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02/11, 1:15am
Netflix makes truce over video privacy act break
Netflix has let a low-profile SEC filing reveal that it had privately settled a lawsuit. The dispute, which was resolved last year but would only be settled with a $9 million payment this year, accused Netflix of breaking the Video Privacy Protection Act and other consumer protection laws by keeping subscribers' video rental histories even after they cancelled. Customers who had resubscribed later found their past histories and queues intact, even though the VPPA required that it be purged in less than a year.
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02/10, 4:45pm
Apple uses patent exhaustion versus Motorola in US
Apple's lawsuit retaliation continued on Friday after it sued Motorola in the US over 3G patent issues. The iPhone designer sought to block Motorola from making patent violation accusations based on its use of Qualcomm's MDM6610 cellular chipset as well as any others it might use. It came after Qualcomm confirmed to Apple that it was already paying for a license to Motorola's 3G patents, which Apple took to mean that it was exempt from paying itself.
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02/10, 12:35pm
Apple sues Samsung twice in one week
Apple scaled up its legal attacks late this week with lawsuits against Samsung both in the US and in Germany. The American complaint, details of which were filed in a Northern District of California court in San Jose on Wednesday and published on Friday, accuses Samsung of violating two patents that it had only just obtained in December. Samsung was accused of copying iOS' techniques for heuristic information finding as well as its method of suggesting a replacement word when a misspelling is highlighted.
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02/10, 7:00am
Motorola suffers setback in German court
Motorola has failed in its bid to force another 3G/UMTS-based patent injunction against Apple in the Mannheim Regional Court, according to Foss Patents. German Judge Andreas Voss dismissed the evidence presented in court by Motorola’s lawyers on the grounds that it had failed to demonstrate conclusive evidence that Apple had infringed upon the patent in question. Instead, Motorola had tried to argue in general terms that as the patent has been declared essential to the 3G/UMTS standard, that Apple by default had to have violated the patent by using the standard in some of its products.
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02/09, 11:40pm
Eolas sees web patent lawsuit claim tossed
Eolas' attempt to patent the "interactive web" may have been dealt a permanent blow after a jury in the normally patent lawsuit-friendly town of Tyler, Texas ruled that the patent was invalid. The decision negated both any attempts at claiming damages and also negated three future trials. The rejection came in part after testimony from the spiritual creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, as well as individual creators whose work predated that of Eolas owner Michael Doyle.
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02/09, 8:20pm
Intel gets away with minor payout to avoid lawsuit
Intel and New York state together stated Thursday that they had settled New York's antitrust lawsuit. The chip designer had managed to pay just $6.5 million and avoided having to admit or change its behavior over the wrongdoing. Its light penalty came after a district court judge had previously ruled that New York couldn't get tripled damages for willful violations and cut the statute on those affected by half, to three years.
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02/09, 12:25pm
SmartData claims Apple violates modular PC idea
Apple is facing a rare instance of foreign patent trolling this week after a discovery that Swiss firm SmartData has sued it over a lone patent. The accusation, quietly filed earlier in the week in Apple's home court district in San Jose, alleged that the Apple TV, the iPhone, and the iOS Remote app violated a patent for a "modular computer." Using Remote on the iPhone to control content on the Apple TV copied the technology, the plaintiff argued.
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02/09, 7:45am
Galaxy Tab 10.1N avoids preliminary ban
Samsung got a reprieve on Thursday after a Dusseldorf court ruling (PDF) denied Apple's call for a preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1N. Fulfilling early expectations, the judge determined that the 10.1N was sufficiently different from the iPad to avoid confusion over Apple's claimed design rights. The court also tossed ideas that even the consciously modified Tab 10.1N was breaking competition rules by unfairly using a similar product.
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02/08, 6:15pm
Nest plans to fight Honeywell lawsuit
Nest signaled its intention to fight Honeywell's lawsuit on Wednesday. In a response, it claimed to be the real innovator with its Learning Thermostat. Honeywell was simply trying to drag down a rival, Nest said.
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02/08, 9:05am
NVIDIA and Rambus sign five-year pact
Rambus on Wednesday struck a deal with NVIDIA to license its patents. The deal extends for five years and is in return for ending Rambus' lawsuit as well as any other legal action. Other details were secret, Rambus said.
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02/07, 11:15pm
Google may make Motorola license patents fairly
A pair of sources claimed Tuesday that Google was about to send a formal pledge to standards bodies that it would license and Motorola's standards-based patents fairly if its $12.5 billion takeover of the phone designer was approved. An official letter would go out within the next day, Bloomberg said, to groups like Europe's telecom agency ETSI. Google wouldn't directly confirm the message, but through spokeswoman Niki Fenwick claimed that Motorola already had been licensing on fair terms and wouldn't change.
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02/07, 8:15pm
Motorola may get steep penalties from Microsoft
Motorola may get a very important victory in its legal campaign against Microsoft. Based on observations from the Mannheim, Germany courtroom, patent lawsuit follower Florian Mueller believed that the court was "inclined to rule" that Microsoft owed Motorola royalties on Windows 7 and the Xbox 360 as well as two core apps, Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Media Player. The Android device maker wants the same 2.25 percent sales royalty that it has asked from Apple for 3G, which could lead to hundreds of millions in compensation with Microsoft's current results.
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02/07, 5:20pm
Smart Audio aims to profit from others' audio work
Mostly unknown Smart Audio Technologies has hoped to skim profits from the audio industry after filing a low-key lawsuit late last week that was publicized Tuesday. The Delaware-based complaint accuses Apple, Creative Labs, and Philips of violating the same February 2001-era patent for car audio system with a random access player that supports playlists. Smart Audio isn't clear what products are violating its technology, although iOS and iPod devices are possible candidates.
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02/07, 12:30pm
ReDigi wins initial injunction case
ReDigi, a company that wants to sell 'used' digital music, has successfully dodged a preliminary injunction filed by EMI last month. Capitol Records, who owns EMI, argued that the service would infringe copyrights as there would be no guarantee that the seller would delete the copy of the digital track being sold. The US district judge in charge of the case, Richard Sullivan, ruled (PDF) for ReDigi, but did state the case raised a number of technological and statutory issues.
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02/07, 11:20am
Apology, iPad embargo among demands
A lawyer for Proview Shenzhen, Xie Xianghui, is claiming that a court in the Xicheng district of Beijing is prepared to "slap Apple with a 240 million yuan ($38 million) fine," according to the Global Times. The Xicheng district administration, though, is refusing to comment. "It is still under investigation, so no official comments on the case can be made yet," a media officer with the administration states. The China Daily meanwhile quotes Xie as also demanding an apology, and an injunction against the sale and marketing of iPads in China.
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02/06, 3:40pm
Google denied appeal on mail shwoing patent issue
Google on Monday lost an appeal trying to keep an incriminating e-mail out of Oracle's lawsuit over Android patents and copyrights. The court rejected Google's view that engineer Tim Lindholm's message, which told top staff that they needed a Java license for Android, was subject to attorney-client privilege. Lindholm had been talking to regular Google employees and not lawyers, the federal appeals court said, making it a valid part of discovery.
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02/06, 12:10pm
Honeywell files suit against Nest, Best Buy
Honeywell on Monday sued Nest Labs, makers of thermostats, for allegedly violating its patents in the US. Seven patents related to thermostat technology are in contention, with some focusing on methods of operating and programming the devices. The lawsuit also aims to involve Best Buy into it, which sells Nest Labs' thermostats.
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02/04, 1:25pm
Motorola royalty demands of Apple uncovered
Newly uncovered documents from Apple's opposition to a Motorola attempt to silence its requests have uncovered Motorola's demands for a 3G patent license. In explaining why it needed to get details of Qualcomm's patent deal with Motorola, Apple mentioned that Motorola had wanted a 2.25 percent royalty on Apple product sales as its attempt at a FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) patent licensing offer. Florian Mueller, who unearthed the details, saw it as likely an excessive rate given that Apple wouldn't only be licensing from Motorola and that it could significantly raise the price of selling an iPhone or 3G iPad.
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02/03, 11:15am
Apple cleared to sell 3G devices in Germany again
Motorola's German ban against Apple was short-lived Friday after the court suspended the ban following an appeal. Apple in a statement hours later told SlashGear that it would have iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and 3G iPads back on Germany's online Apple Store soon. The iOS device builder reiterated the point of view behind the appeal, which contended that Motorola was violating policies around licensing patents on FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms.
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02/03, 6:20am
Motorola strikes a blow for Android against Apple
Motorola has scored two significant victories against Apple in Germany, the result of two separate legal actions it has initiated in a Mannheim court, according to FOSS Patents. The first of the two cases dates back to a decision handed down in December where Motorola won an injunction against Apple on its implementation of 3G/UMTS technology and has resulted in Apple pulling its iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 as well as all of its iPads from its online store in Germany. The second has resulted in an injunction against Apple’s implementation of push e-mail in iCloud and MobileMe.
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02/02, 6:30pm
Google fined in Google Maps antitrust case
France on Wednesday found that Google had allegedly abused the dominance of Google Maps to squeeze out regional competitors. The American company was asked to pay 500,000 euros ($657,350) in direct compensation as well as a 15,000-euro ($19,720) fine. Bottin Cartographes had accused Google of price dumping by using its search ad business to give away the map service for free where Bottin had to charge for the same service.
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02/01, 12:25pm
Apple denied chance to include Nexus in early ban
A Munich court on Wednesday denied Apple's motions to have preliminary bans imposed on the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Tab 10.1N. Judge Andreas Mueller sided with Samsung's view that it was 'more likely than not" the 2011-era Apple patent at stake would be revoked, leaving Samsung's devices in the clear. Prior art already existed on the market before Apple had filed in Germany, the court said.
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01/31, 8:40pm
Tensions between 2 giants continue
A California Superior Court Judge has thrown out a suit over a settlement between HP and Oracle over Oracle's hiring away then HP CEO Mark Hurd. Oracle had claimed that HP has tricked it into the settlement by withholding information about its intentions to bring in a new CEO, Leo Apotheker. Oracle considered Apotheker as "toxic" to any relationship between the two companies.
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01/31, 2:25pm
Apple tries again to sue Proview over iPad name
Apple has appealed the rejection of a lawsuit in an attempt to claim the iPad trademark for itself in China. A quietly submitted and just now discovered January 5 filing with the Higher People's Court in Guangdong has challenged the idea that Proview still had its trademarks after a Taiwan branch sold rights to UK intellectual property holding company, IP Applications. The appeal not only wants the trademark given to Apple but for court costs of four million yuan, or about $633,693, to be covered by Proview.
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01/31, 8:05am
Galaxy Tab still banned but for different reasons
A Dusseldorf appeals court ruled Tuesday to uphold Apple's requested preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its original form. The decision, which also covers the Galaxy Tab 8.9, is unusual in not working based on Apple's community design rights but on a breach of German unfair competition laws. As such, the verdict is limited specifically to Germany and can't go to other European Union member states.
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01/31, 7:30am
EU investigates Samsung use of 3G standards
Samsung may have overstepped its bounds in trying to counter Apple as the European Commission has launched an investigation of its practices. The EU body is hoping to determine whether Samsung breached promises to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to charge fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) rates by suing Apple over 3G in multiple European countries. It wanted to check whether Samsung was trying to "distort competition" and abuse a controlling stake in wireless.
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01/30, 7:55pm
HTC may be subject to renewed lawsuit in US
HTC saw a further setback in its attempts to survive patent conflicts on Monday after a US Court of Appeals in Washington ruled (PDF) that an earlier decision invalidating an IPCom patent in a lawsuit couldn't be upheld. The judge who had overseen the original case, where HTC had sued IPCom to negate its patent, would have to listen to arguments from IPCom as to why the patent was still valid. It would revive a lawsuit HTC had initiated in 2008 and thought it had resolved with its victory in 2010.
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01/30, 10:20am
Megaupload fighting to keep user data deletion
User data of the recently shuttered Megaupload site may have all their data deleted by this Thursday, US prosecutors revealed. This would reduce the ability of his clients to defend themselves in court, the lawyer representing Megaupload founders added. The site was shut down for allegedly sharing pirated content with the owners' full knowledge.
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01/29, 7:05pm
HTC may run afoul of patent after decision
An examination of a decision in a Chicago court in Apple's lawsuit versus Motorola could see most any Android device face inherent patent violations. Florian Mueller has noticed that Judge Richard Posner interpreted a realtime API (app programming interface) in such a way that Motorola and other Android supporters not only would be infringing on the technology, but wouldn't have an easy way around it. HTC had already been found violating the patent and could now see that definition enshrined in the courts.
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01/27, 5:50pm
USPTO rules last of 3 core Rambus patents invalid
Rambus' litigation campaign suffered a possibly fatal setback Friday after the USPTO pushed word that it had invalidated the final patent out of three the company has been using to sue a large part of the technology industry. Having quietly made the decision on Tuesday, the patent office's appeals board left Rambus without any of the patents it has been using to sue NVIDIA, Hynix, HP, and others. The first two had been scrapped in September.
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01/27, 11:45am
Apple, Google must face job poaching claims
Northern California district court judge Lucy Koh ruled late Thursday that multiple technologies can't dismiss a lawsuit over anti-poaching deals. Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar will have to face the allegations that they unfairly hurt compensation and job chances by making informal pacts to avoid recruiting each other's staff. Judge Koh's view echoed those of the raw evidence, which confirmed individual deals but didn't show that the industry at large was colluding against recruiting attempts.
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01/27, 5:00am
Second Samsung 3G claim tossed in two weeks
Samsung has suffered its second patent loss against Apple in as many weeks. The company has said that a German court has ruled that its second of three patent claims related to 3G/UMTS has been rejected. The latest blow in its bitter ongoing legal battle with Apple comes after the same court ruled that the first of the three patents that it is asserting against Apple was also rejected. The Mannheim court has reserved its decision on the third of Samsung’s 3G claims until March 2.
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01/25, 3:35pm
Motorola lawsuit swings to newer Apple releases
Motorola has escalated its countering campaign against Apple with a new lawsuit in Florida. Filed Tuesday but only made public today, the complaint focuses on more recent releases and alleges that both the iPhone 4S and iCloud violate six of its patents. These include basics such as having a hidden external antenna, communicating filtered data, managing use, and a "pager status" sync patent also used in Motorola's German actions.
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01/25, 11:55am
Aims at tougher measures
Apple is appealing a US International Trade Commission ruling on its first complaint against HTC, notes FOSS Patents. The appeal is actually said to have been filed with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on December 29th, but remained out of the limelight until it was referenced today in a filing with the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. There Apple is trying to assert a real-time API patent against Motorola, and told the court that an administrative law judge agreed with Apple's construction of the term "realtime application programming interface," but that the ITC "reversed the ALJ's construction."
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01/24, 7:35am
Aplpe denied Netherlands appeal on Galaxy Tab ban
Apple on Tuesday lost its appeal to try to include the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in a partial, preliminary Samsung device ban in the Netherlands. Shifting from software to hardware, the court decided that the Android tablet could only be compared against an early design Apple registered in 2004 and not the original iPad of 2010. There was enough difference between those to clear Samsung, according to the judge in The Hague.
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01/23, 9:05pm
InterDigital decides against sale to others
InterDigital provided mixed news to the mobile industry as it decided against exploring a possible sale. The company had decided against possible offers following a review and would instead focus on "patent sales and licensing partnerships." It declined to say who it was talking to.
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01/23, 5:05pm
Apple gaining little for anti-Android campaign?
Apple has spent about $100 million in legal fees trying to prosecute just its first set of patent claims against HTC, a rumor suggests. The information is potentially inaccurate, coming from a person "close to the situation" citing "a rumor going around among the lawyers," according to Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons. Apple's initial volley against HTC, in Feburary 2010, did however consist of 84 claims, linked to 10 patents, shrinking down to four patents by the time the case reached a judge.
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01/23, 12:00pm
Apple wants ex parte discovery of Ericsson patents
Apple on Friday is now known to have called on information from Ericsson to help defend against Motorola's patent lawsuits in the US and Germany. An ex parte request for discovery is asking Ericsson whether or not it has a license to the same Motorola patents that are being used to sue Apple. The requests would be used primarily in German courts, where Apple has so far lost to Motorola.
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01/21, 6:05pm
Megaupload may skip Universal for individuals
Megaupload's lawsuit opposing a takedown of a promo video may have taken an unusual turn. The company was claimed by a Hollywood Reporter source with access to the case to have dropped Universal, which orchestrated the takedown, from the suit. Only a number of unnamed people who had participated in the takedown remained.
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01/21, 2:05am
Olympus barely avoids stock disaster post-scandal
Olympus on Friday narrowly avoided additional threats of possible delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Officials at the trading house said they would let Olympus stay after the $1.7 billion concealment scandal but would make it pay a relatively mild fine of 10 million yen, or about $129,800. The light penalty was based on the belief that just a handful of staffers had been responsible for hiding Olympus' losses and that the core of the company was safe.
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01/20, 9:35pm
Ericsson and ZTE drop patent suits on GSM, 3G
Ericsson and ZTE on Friday made peace and dropped lawsuits against each other over cellular technology. In return for stopping legal action, they agreed to license some of each other's technology patents. ZTE would take a license of Ericsson's patents for GSM and 3G under lower standards-based rates; it's not clear what if anything Ericsson would be paying ZTE.
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01/20, 8:45pm
Apple hopes to derail Kodak lawsuit via loan terms
Apple in an objection (PDF) late this week hoped to stop Kodak from getting some loans to recover from its bankruptcy status based on patent disputes. The iPhone producer asserted that Kodak, in using its patents as collateral, was using "certain patents" for digital camera technology that were either Apple's or were still the subject of lawsuits. Kodak had "misappropriated" Apple technology and tried to patent it on its own, Apple said, prompting the 2010 countering lawsuit.
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01/20, 2:40pm
Apple claims Nexus breaks utility model
Apple in the same Mannheim Regional Court that just tossed one Samsung patent claim has argued that the Galaxy Nexus is violating a utility model, or a quick-to-establish but short reach legal claim. The iPhone designer alleged on Friday that the Android 4.0 leader violated a slide-to-unlock motion from iOS that was given the utility model status in Germany in 2006. Apple argued that it couldn't use the model until now as other phones, even ones years old, were too new for the claim.
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01/20, 8:55am
DOJ shows no hiring conspiracy, but small deals
Newly publicized evidence in the wake of an agreement to stop no-poaching deals among Silicon Valley technology companies has shown that several firms did ultimately have deals but stopped short of colluding on a larger level. Although short on details of the supposed Apple-Google agreement, an e-mail message from Adobe Senior VP of human resources Theresa Townsley confirmed that Adobe and Apple had an informal rule against hiring each other's staff. At least in 2005, Adobe chief Bruce Chizen and Apple's Steve Jobs had blocked attempts to get each other's staff.
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01/20, 6:10am
Samsung loses 3G tech claim, Apple in good shape
Apple has won the latest skirmish in its ongoing patent war with Samsung that is currently being waged across 10 countries, according to Reuters. A German court in Mannheim has dismissed Samsung’s claim that Apple was infringing on its 3G wireless patents. Samsung responded by saying that the ruling only covers one patent and that the German court has yet to hand down its decision on two additional 3G-related patents.
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01/18, 5:05pm
Kodak claims Samsung violates camera patents
Kodak showed the mounting extent of its troubles Wednesday by suing Samsung over camera patents. It accused the Galaxy Tab designer of violating five patents for "electronic camera" technology, such as capturing photos during previews and transferring them online. It unusually singled out tablets, not smartphones, as purportedly infringing its work.
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01/18, 11:25am
Orcale claims Google making steep Android profit
Oracle has put out an unofficial estimate of Google's possible damages claimed it was making over $10 million a year from each day it sells Android. Going from Google mobile VP Andy Rubin's claims of 700,000 activations per day and assuming $14 in ad revenue from each device, Oracle assumed Google was making eight-digit revenue just from ads alone, according to a copy of statements obtained by Florian Mueller. This didn't include Android Market, exclusive hardware deals, or "other Android-related services," the database veteran said.
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01/17, 11:00am
Deal terms could render Apple immune to some suits
Samsung has formally requested details of the contract between Apple and wireless supplier Qualcomm, the Korea Times reports. The action was taken through a US District Court in California, and is intended to discover whether a cross-licensing deal between Samsung and Qualcomm means that "Apple's buying Qualcomm chips is as good as paying for the patents." Depending on the exact arrangement, Apple may be immune to related patent infringement lawsuits from Samsung.
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