intellectual property

In a decision that deprives open-source foes of some rhetorical fodder, the group that licenses patents for the widely used H.264 video-encoding technology chose to renew a streaming-media freebie through 2015.

MPEG LA licenses more than 1,000 H.264-related patents on behalf of 26 companies that hold the patents. The group's existing policy, which runs through the end of 2010, has been not to charge royalties to Internet sites that streamed video using the technology--as long as the video was free for viewers.

Many have been waiting to hear what MPEG LA would announce for the licensing … Read more

Google and China disagree about censorship of Web search results, but a spokesman for China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Wednesday that phones using Google's Android operating system are permissible.

"As long as it fulfills Chinese laws and regulations and has good communication with telecom operators, I think its application should not have restrictions," said Zhu Hongren, the spokesman at a news briefing, according to the Associated Press.

Of course, China permitted Google's Web search service, too, as long as it complied with the law. But those terms ultimately proved objectionable to Google, … Read more

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is preparing to deliver a major speech on Thursday elevating the importance of Internet freedom and placing the influence of the United States' diplomacy behind efforts to protect it, according to multiple people who have been briefed on the speech's contents.

Clinton's speech at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., is intended to announce that support for online liberty and press freedom will become a State Department priority and will address the importance of cybersecurity, people who have been briefed said. For example, the U.S. could be prepared to require countries … Read more

Samsung Electronics and Rambus said Tuesday that they have reached an agreement settling all claims between them and the licensing of Rambus' patent portfolio for all Samsung semiconductor products.

Under the agreement, Samsung will initially pay Rambus $200 million. In addition, the South Korean electronics company will make quarterly payments of about $25 million over five years and agree to purchase $200 million worth of Rambus stock. In total, about $900 million.

The agreement includes a perpetual fully paid-up license to certain current dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products. DRAM chips are used as the main memory for PCs.

In addition, Samsung and Rambus have signed a memorandum of understanding covering a new generation of memory technologies which combines Samsung's and Rambus' memory technologies. Rambus' expertise lies in high-performance memory interfaces.

The two companies will initially focus on graphics and mobile memory solutions and will further review a potential collaboration on server and high-speed NAND flash memories, the companies said.

The settlement came just as Rambus was set to go to trial against Samsung, Hynix Semiconductor, and Micron Technology.

Rambus has a long and convoluted history of lawsuits and legal action.… Read more

The U.S. government plans to ask China for a formal explanation regarding the cyberattacks against Google and other U.S. companies, according to a State Department spokesman.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had already hinted at such a move in a statement she released when Google first revealed the attacks. "We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early this week," AFP quoted State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley as saying during a briefing Friday.

Google's disclosure of attacks that are thought to … Read more

Eastman Kodak on Thursday announced that it has filed legal complaints against Apple and Research in Motion alleging patent infringement.

The photo company claims the camera technology used in Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry to preview images infringes on a digital imaging patent owned by Kodak. In a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Kodak is asking that certain mobile phones with digital cameras be excluded from import unless the company can reach a fair method of compensation with Apple and RIM.

"In the case of Apple and RIM, we've had discussions … Read more

In a recent response to longstanding antitrust accusations from chipmaking rival Advanced Micro Devices, Intel included in a Federal Trade Commission filing a quote from one of AMD's own executives critical of AMD chips.

Near the top of the document is the most condemning statement against AMD--an excerpt of a 2004 internal AMD communication from former AMD Executive Vice President Henri Richard, the company's then-highest-ranking sales executive: "If you look at it with an objective set of eyes, you would never buy AMD. I certainly would never buy AMD for a personal system, if I wasn't working here."

The Intel response (PDF), according to Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy, was posted on the FTC Web site on Friday. Although Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion to settle an antitrust case in November, the FTC continues to pursue the case against Intel.

Intel got the internal AMD communication through the discovery process, Mulloy said. "Over time, more and more [of] this kind of information will be available in the case," he said Wednesday.

AMD technology has gone through periods when its chips have been decidedly less competitive than Intel's, according to Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at research firm In-Stat. "You're looking at a period of time when AMD wasn't necessarily the most competitive product out there. AMD has gone through cycles," he said, adding that Intel has gone through a similar competitiveness ebb and flow. … Read more

High-quality online video has been in high demand in China, and Chinese search provider Baidu is hoping to fulfill that need.

Baidu announced on Wednesday that it is creating an independent company to offer premium online videos to Chinese Internet users. The new entity is designed to work with content providers to supply copyrighted material, including movies, TV shows, sports, and animation, and it will generate its revenue through advertisements.

"As China's Internet industry evolves, we have seen increasing demand for high-quality video content on our search platform. By establishing this new company, we will be able to … Read more

Google, the company that made "don't be evil" its corporate motto, is shunning use of an open-source license variation that precludes use of software for evil purposes.

The matter illustrates the tensions between the sometimes free-wheeling ways of open-source programming world and the buttoned-down corporate realms where open-source software is no longer unusual. This particular issue bubbled up at Google Code, a site that hosts open-source projects from Google and others.

Google only permits software governed by a limited list of widely used open-source licenses to be hosted at Google Code; one that's permitted is the … Read more