Legal

Apple sues Samsung for 'copying' smartphones, tablets

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Samsung, alleging that the consumer electronics giant has violated Apple's intellectual property in the design of its mobile devices.

The suit, which was filed last week and picked up on by The Wall Street Journal, takes aim specifically at the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets, as well as other Samsung smartphones, for "copying" Apple's user interface and design features. In it, Apple--the maker of the trend-setting iPhone and iPad--claims Samsung is infringing on its patents and is practicing unfair competition.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for … Read more

Parent sues Apple for in-app buying policy

Shortly after Apple introduced new parental controls for in-app purchases on iPhone or iPad games, the company is being slapped with a lawsuit that says it hasn't done enough.

Earlier this week, Garen Meguerian of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against Apple that says the company's policy for in-app purchases doesn't go far enough to prevent children from buying currency or points inside apps and games. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, requests class-action status and asks for unspecified damages and legal fees.

Meguerian brought the suit after his 9-year-old daughter downloaded … Read more

Sony and GeoHot settle PS3 jailbreaking case

Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced that it has settled its contentious suit against infamous hacktivist George Hotz, aka GeoHot.

"Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us," said Riley Russell, general counsel for SCEA, in a statement. "Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal."

For those who haven't been keeping up, Hotz hacked Sony's PlayStation 3, jailbreaking it to run non-Sony-approved software and, potentially, pirated games.

The settlement itself was apparently reached on the March 31, but Sony only just made it public. Details of the settlement, however, weren't made available.… Read more

Man sued by Apple support firm for complaining gets new iMac

Happy endings do happen. Sometimes.

So I am delighted to report the existence of at least a slightly cheery ending in a troubling legal case involving an Apple support company and one of its customers.

You might remember this difficult tale.

In what was a landmark case in Greece, an Apple support company, Systemgraph, decided to sue one of its customers when he complained (very mildly) about its service on his blog.

Dmitri Papadimitriadis, the Greek physician who was bold enough to declare publicly that he was not pleased with Systemgraph's service, was unhappy that his iMac seemed to … Read more

Apple patent hints at bezel displays for iPhone

As iPhone 5 rumors have trickled over the past month, one that's popped up repeatedly is a screen so big it nearly does away with the bezel. That's the area around the display, and right before the very edge of the device that sits as unused space.

But such a screen might be at odds with a new Apple patent application unearthed by Patently Apple. The patent outlines a secondary display embedded within the bezel that would extend what's happening on the main screen to the surrounding area.

The applications for such a design are broad, from notifications and other indicators to a display area that apps can make use of to extend the user interface. Such features could be handy on a small screen where even given a high-pixel density, total real estate is limited by the casing itself.

The patent description spells this much out:

To assist a user in providing inputs, traditional devices use the display to provide indicators to the user regarding where and how to provide a touch input. For example, a traditional device may display a virtual button on a touch screen to indicate that a user can touch that portion of the screen to provide an input. However, providing such indicators occupies space on the touch screen that could otherwise be used for displaying visual content.

The patent describes this functionality including not just phones, but media players like the iPod, PDAs, laptops, and cameras. … Read more

Apple wins reversal in Cover Flow patent case

Apple has come out the victor in a three-year-old patent infringement suit that would have cost the company more than $625 million for infringing on patents held by Mirror Worlds.

The case, in which a jury had found Apple liable last October, targeted the Cover Flow, Spotlight search, and Time Machine features found in Apple's Mac OS. The October jury ruling was fought by the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology company with an emergency motion to stay. In that motion, Apple said the damages were too high and urged the court to re-evaluate the evidence.

In the court's ruling … Read more

PS3 hacker's lawyers fire back at Sony

Things are getting even more interesting in one of the biggest jailbreaking cases currently in the courts. Stewart Kellar and his team of attorneys for George Hotz (aka GeoHot), on Friday filed a motion (PDF from Grocklaw) to dismiss Sony Computer Entertainment of America's suit against their client--for a few reasons:

First up, they object to SCEA's attempts to establish jurisdiction of the case in Northern California. Hotz lives and works in New Jersey, and, as an individual and not a corporation, really doesn't have the cash on hand to traverse the country defending himself in … Read more

Apple wins round in Nokia patent fight

A judge with the U.S. International Trade Commission said today that Apple is not in violation of five of Nokia's patents.

Nokia filed a series of suits against Apple in 2009, accusing the company of infringing on 17 patents related to wireless handsets that Apple had refused to license. Nokia asked the ITC that Apple be banned from importing the offending devices. Apple countersued, charging Nokia with infringing 13 Apple patents related to the iPhone.

ITC Judge James Gildea made the initial determination that Apple had not infringed on Nokia's patents, Reuters reported today. It's not … Read more

Sony: PS3 hacker GeoHot fled to South America

Update, 7:01 p.m. PT: with Hotz saying he is on a long-planned vacation.

If you've been following the drama between Sony and hacker GeoHot (aka George Hotz) then you're in for a fun twist today: Sony is accusing Hotz of fleeing the country, but Hotz says he's just enjoying spring break.

Sony makes the allegation in a court filing (PDF, see page 2, line 24) dated Friday.

After news stories began appearing today, Hotz wrote a blog post to set the record straight.

"Actually, it's true I'm in South America, on a vacation I've had planned and paid for since November. I mean, it is spring break; hacking isn't my life," he writes. "Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course [Sony-employed law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton] loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer."

Hotz is well known for reverse-engineering the multi-digit code that allows the installation and execution of non-Sony-recognized code on PlayStation 3s, essentially allowing anyone with a PS3 to run homebrew software, or even pirated games.

A federal magistrate a couple weeks ago OK'd Sony's request for Hotz to hand over his hacking gear--his PS3 consoles, computers, and other equipment--untouched. It seems that before turning the stuff in, he allegedly made edits, deleting key evidence that Sony likely planned to use against him.

What's more, Hotz was allegedly caught lying about having a PlayStation Network (PSN) account. But Sony says it was able to prove that in February of last year, Hotz allegedly purchased a new PS3 and, tracing the serial number, Sony says it concluded that he had set up a PSN account under the screen name "blickmanic," which is also a name Hotz used on previous Web forums on iPhone jailbreaking. … Read more