intellectual property

Hearing set for appeal of Word injunction

A federal appeals court has scheduled a hearing next month to decide whether to uphold a ruling that would force Microsoft to stop selling Word in its current form.

A district court judge last week issued an injunction that would halt sales of any version of Word that includes a custom XML function that was found by a jury to infringe on a patent from Canada's I4i. In May, that jury also dinged Microsoft with $200 million in damages, an amount that the judge hiked to more than $290 million at the same time he ordered the injunction, which … Read more

Report: Nvidia readies Intel-disputed chip

Nvidia is readying silicon that would work with Intel's newest processor design, according to a report. Intel claims Nvidia does not have the legal rights to make companion chips for its newest processors.

In February, Intel alleged in a lawsuit that the 4-year-old chipset license agreement with Nvidia does not extend to Intel's future-generation processors with "integrated" memory controllers, such as its "Nehalem" Core i series of processors.

A chipset is companion silicon to the main processor. Integrated memory controllers are built into the processor itself to increase performance between the processor and memory. … Read more

Microsoft asks for stay of Word injunction

This story was updated with comment from I4i Chairman Loudon Owen and Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz.

Microsoft on Tuesday asked an appeals court to halt an injunction that would force the company to stop selling Microsoft Word in its current form.

A judge last week issued an injunction that would force Microsoft to stop selling versions of Word with a custom XML function that a jury found infringes on a patent held by Canadian software maker I4i. The judge had ordered the injunction to go into effect 60 days after the ruling.

In its "emergency motion," made Tuesday, … Read more

Justice Department defends massive file-swapping fine

Nearly two years ago, the Bush administration sided with the major record labels in their civil lawsuit against an alleged and briefly famous Kazaa user named Jammie Thomas. Now the Obama administration is doing so as well.

In a legal brief filed Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice said the whopping $1.92 million fine that the Recording Industry Association of America slapped on Thomas was perfectly constitutional.

Federal prosecutors argue the relevant law is "carefully crafted" and consistent with "due process" and part of a necessary "regime to protect intellectual property. Under current … Read more

Report: EU ombudsman criticizes Intel antitrust regulators

The European Union's ombudsman has criticized the antitrust regulator in a recent case against Intel, saying the regulator did not include evidence that was potentially exculpatory for the chipmaker, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

In May, Intel was fined 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) for engaging in, according to the Commission, illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude competitors from the market for computer chips based on the x86 architecture--the design that both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices use in their microprocessors.

"Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep … Read more

OMG! Intel Celeron chips in terrorists' hands

A letter from The Securities and Exchange Commission to Intel is not likely to inspire a future episode of "24."

The June 4, 2009 letter (originally marked "confidential") to Intel from the SEC states: "We are aware of a May 2008 news report that PCs in Cuba contain your Celeron processors. Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria are identified by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism, and are subject to U.S. economic sanctions and export controls."

The letter continues. "We note that your Form 10-K does not include disclosure regarding contacts … Read more

Google spending more on D.C. lobbying

Faced with issues ranging from online ads to copyright laws, Google spent $950,000 lobbying Washington in the second quarter, according to a federal government database.

The amount compares with the $880,000 that Google spent on lobbying in the first quarter--and the $2.84 million it spent for all of 2008.

Among the issues that Google lobbied on: intellectual property, copyright related to the Google Book Search settlement, and privacy and competition surrounding online advertising.

Google has been under fire from the Justice Department over the company's settlement of a lawsuit with book publishers on digital rights issues.… Read more

EU seeks opinions on Google Books

European Union regulators want publishers and authors to weigh in on copyright issues with Google's book scanning and book search project, according to the Associated Press.

European Commission officials will meet with copyright holders on September 7 to discuss the search giant's $125 million proposed settlement with U.S. publishers and authors granting Google the right to digitize and publish books that are out of print but still protected by copyright law. The court overseeing the settlement has given authors a September 4 deadline to opt out individually if they don't not wish to participate. Google has … Read more

Patent Office rejects Rambus claims against Nvidia

According to Nvidia on Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has initially rejected an additional eight Rambus claims that Nvidia challenged.

The additional eight claims are based on two patents that Rambus has asserted against Nvidia in litigation. This follows the USPTO's rejection last month of 41 other claims in seven patents that Rambus had asserted, Nvidia said.

Rambus filed patent claims against Nvidia in an International Trade Commission action in November. The ITC litigation involves memory controllers--which handle communications between memory chips and other silicon--related to graphics processors.

"We are pleased that the USPTO decided … Read more

Conan O'Brien ribs 'nerds' at Intel science fair

"How do I calculate the size of meatballs?" That was the title of one of the seminal Intel science projects that late-night comedian Conan O'Brien covered in a segment last night on NBC's "The Tonight Show."

O'Brien was at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, billed as the world's largest pre-college science fair. Intel is one of the sponsors of the "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," which launched recently with the retirement (from that show) of Jay Leno.

"Even though Intel is one of the world'… Read more