Patents

A lawsuit filed by H-W Technology earlier this week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division claims Apple, Research In Motion, Google, and 29 other major technology companies are infringing on a patent it was granted in April 2009.

U.S. patent number 7,525,955, which had first been filed in March 2005, is described as an "Internet protocol (IP) phone with search and advertising capability."

In its filing from Wednesday, which was picked up by The Loop, H-W Technology says the patent deals with smartphones that can plug into … Read more

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

The U.S. International Trade Commission has decided that it will review Eastman Kodak's patent infringement complaint against Apple and Research in Motion.

The move, which was reported by Reuters this afternoon, marks the latest step in Kodak's mission to get Apple and RIM to pay royalties for allegedly illegally using its intellectual property. The patent in question deals with an image-previewing system for cameras.

Back in January, an ITC administrative law judge had said that Kodak's technology was not being used illegally in Apple's iPhone, or RIM's BlackBerry devices, which prompted the ruling to … Read more

Apple has fired another legal salvo over the use of the term "app store," this one targeted at adult app store MiKandi.

Last week, MiKandi received a cease-and-desist order from Apple over the use of the term "app store," company co-founder Jennifer McEwen confirmed today to CNET.

In an interview with GeekWire published yesterday, fellow MiKandi co-founder Jesse Adams said that Apple specifically asked the company to stop billing itself as the "world's first app store for adults" and to stop using the term "app store" in describing its own free … Read more

A patent granted to Apple provides new hints that a 3G version of the MacBook may be in the cards. The new patent outlines a detachable, magnetic antenna for connecting your laptop to the Internet on the go.

Patently Apple first reported on the patent, one of a series of patents newly granted to Apple. The antenna appears to sit on a hinge when connected, so that it can be adjusted to ensure the best reception. The antenna is also attached by magnets, so it comes off easily when knocked, stepped on, or otherwise duffed up. That should keep it from breaking.

Read more of "Apple MacBook 3G could have detachable, magnetic antenna" at Crave UK. … Read more

I worry that our whole world is being systematically systematized.

The more our youngest and brightest minds offer their working souls to the Facebooks and Twitters of this firmament, the more they are asked to define every single human event and emotion by digits.

And yet I still found myself sensing a momentary twitch of the single gray hair between my eyebrows when I heard that Google had been awarded a patent for its doodles.

I suppose there will be some who will say: "But, of course! Google's doodles are unique works of art! Van Gogh would have … Read more

I4i has won the support of the U.S. government as its patent infringement case against Microsoft winds it way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by I4i in 2007 in which it claimed that Microsoft had violated one of I4i's patents by including a custom XML feature in Microsoft Word. Though Microsoft lost on both the initial verdict and the appeal, the software giant filed another appeal last year, this time with the Supreme Court, which agreed last November to hear the case.

I4i, a small Canadian company, has received strong … Read more

The legal wrestling match between Microsoft and Motorola over intellectual property has heated up, with both sides tacking on extra patents to their existing lawsuits and complaints.

Over at blog FOSS Patents, IP activist Florian Mueller has made a handy timeline of the two companies' legal dance, running from October of last year--when Microsoft first filed two legal complaints against Motorola--all the way to late February, when Microsoft managed to get the first of three suits in the state of Wisconsin moved to the Western District of Washington.

During that span of four months, Motorola added two additional patents to … Read more

The corporate wrangling over Web video standards, already a technically and legally complex matter, is getting a lot more complicated with the arrival of a Justice Department antitrust investigation.

Specifically, the DOJ is looking into whether the actions of patent licensing group MPEG LA are stifling a Google video encoding technology called VP8, The Wall Street Journal reported last night. The the California State Attorney General's office also is looking into the matter, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

MPEG LA licenses patents for Web video encoding technology, including today's widely used H.264, on behalf of a … Read more