Legal

The U.S. International Trade Commission today said that Apple is not violating patents held by S3 Graphics in its products and is terminating its investigation on the matter.

The decision follows a mixed ruling in July, where an ITC judge found Apple to be infringing on two of S3 Graphics' patents, while not infringing on two others. A final decision on the matter was due last week, with the ITC electing to postpone it (PDF) until today for reasons unknown.

"Having examined the record of this investigation, including the administrative law judge's final ID and the submissions … Read more

Will future iPhones hold up better to big drops? They might if they sport special shock absorbers like the one featured in a newly published Apple patent application.

An early 2010 filing picked up by Patently Apple this morning details a shock mount system that sits between the display and the body of the phone. That protective layer can then be inflated to help brace the device in the event it senses a drop, much like the technology in notebook hard drives that locks up the read/write heads, keeping damage at bay. … Read more

Apple has reached a proposed settlement in a class action lawsuit involving older models of its MagSafe power adapters.

Those particular adapters, the 60W and 85W versions that shipped on earlier models of the company's MacBook and MacBook Pro portable computers, were prone to splitting and became the target of a class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit claimed that the particular adapter design was defective to the point of where it "dangerously frays, sparks and prematurely fails to work." The 2009 filing accused Apple of knowing about, and misrepresenting the problem, claims Apple denied in court. AdapterSettlement.com'… Read more

Security researcher Charlie Miller has been ejected from participating in Apple's developer programs, shortly after releasing early findings of a security hole in the company's iOS software.

Miller announced the news on Twitter this afternoon, saying "OMG, Apple just kicked me out of the iOS Developer program. That's so rude!"

Earlier today Forbes' Andy Greenberg published a story featuring Miller, who is a well-known security researcher who targets Apple's products and services. Miller's latest discovery was a security hole in iOS that let applications grab unsigned code from third-party servers that could be … Read more

The spat between Motorola Mobility and Apple in Germany just got a little more interesting, with a regional court granting Motorola an injunction against the iPhone and Mac maker.

The judgment does not mean that Apple can be kept from selling its products in the country, since the suit takes aim at Apple Inc. and not the company's local subsidiary in the region.

Intellectual property tracking blog FOSS Patents today posted the default judgment by the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany, which granted Motorola Mobility an injunction against the Mac and iOS device maker for infringing on two of … Read more

A new complaint from Apple has porn cybersquatters in its sights.

In a filing with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which was picked up by Domain Name Wire, the iDevice and Mac maker takes aim at seven domain names that use Apple's trademarked term "iPhone."

The seven sites lead to Web sites that sell pornography, instead of being related to Apple or Apple products.

Those names include (and duh, none of these are safe for work): iphonecamforce.com iphonecam4s.com iphoneporn4s.com iphonesex4s.com iphonexxxforce.com iphone4s.com porn4iphones.com

As Domain Name Wire notes, whoever … Read more

Samsung's campaign to keep Apple's iPhone 4S from being sold in Europe has hit a roadblock, with an Italian judge putting off making a decision until after well after the device launches in the country.

Italian news outlet Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (AGI) today reported that Milan judges denied a request from Samsung filed earlier this month to keep Apple's iPhone 4S from being sold in the country, however no ruling has been made. Instead, Apple and Samsung were given extra time to provide the court with information ahead of an additional hearing that will take place December … Read more

A U.S. district judge in Northern California said today that Samsung's line of Galaxy tablets infringe on Apple's patents, while adding that Apple still has to show that those patents are valid under the law.

Reuters, which followed the court hearing, notes that the comments came as part of request by Apple to get an injunction against Samsung's tablets in the U.S., and that a formal order on whether Samsung infringes on an Apple utility patent will be issued "fairly promptly."

Reuters notes that Apple still needs to demonstrate to the court that … Read more

The North Carolina man who unknowingly purchased what turned out to be a prototype Apple notebook computer earlier this year has had some of the parts he added to the machine returned roughly a month after the company reclaimed it.

Carl Frega, a North Carolina resident who had purchased the machine from someone on Craigslist for parts to fuel his repair business, today told CNET that Apple has shipped back a handful of parts he used to get the machine back into working condition.

That list includes a hard drive, notebook battery, and two sticks of RAM, which arrived in … Read more