patent

U.S. backs I4i in patent case against Microsoft

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

Microsoft-Motorola patent spat heats up

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

Justice Department investigates Web video group

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

Microsoft, Google challenge GeoTag patent

Microsoft and Google have teamed up to challenge a patent held by GeoTag--a geolocation technology company--that has been used to sue more than 300 other businesses.

The technology giants said the lawsuit, filed in District Court of Delaware earlier this week, is a result of the hundreds of suits GeoTag has lodged claiming those businesses infringe on the patent, which relates to geotagging technology. Many of the existing lawsuits are with customers of the Bing Maps and Google Maps services, the filing said.

"The suits have placed a cloud on Plaintiffs' web mapping services, have caused customers to … Read more

Motorola sings TiVo the 'sue me, sue you' blues

Motorola has filed a patent-infringement suit against TiVo over digital video recorders, according to a report.

The suit claims TiVo willfully infringed patents that were filed in the mid 1990s on behalf of a company later acquired by Motorola, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reports that the suit also mentions a DVR patent claim filed by TiVo against Verizon--which offers a service that uses set-top boxes made by Motorola--and that the Motorola suit seeks "all available remedies" for TiVo's alleged infringements, as well as a declaration that Motorola set tops … Read more

Apple patent shows plans for iPad smart bezel

The iPad 2 and iPhone 5 haven't even been announced yet, but there is already some intriguing information about the technology that could be in future versions of Apple's iOS devices. Two separate patent filings uncovered this week reveal Apple's work on a smart bezel that could be used for tablets, and on denser lithium batteries that will go longer between charges.

Patently Apple has full details on the first of those. The basic idea is for the bezel of a device to include sensors, allowing you to touch, tap, hold, and even squeeze it to trigger … Read more

Nokia-Microsoft tie-up could shift mobile patent wars

There are many assured changes coming to the mobile world with the deal struck between Microsoft and Nokia today. But an uncertain future scenario with broad implications concerns how the combination of Nokia's very large patent portfolio and Microsoft's slew of licensing deals will alter the mobile patent landscape.

Over the last two years it's begun to seem as if all the major smartphone players are involved in one patent spat or another with Nokia a chief antagonist in the drama. The company has more than 10,000 patents and says it has reached licensing agreements with … Read more

MPEG LA patent move blemishes Google's Web video plan

A serious complication has just emerged for Google's plan for high-quality, patent-free, open-source video on the Web--but Google also revealed plans today to try to counteract it.

MPEG LA, an organization that licenses video-related patents related to a variety of standards, has formally requested for patent owners to inform them of patents they believe Google's VP8 technology uses.

In "offer[ing] to facilitate development of a joint license to provide coverage under essential patents," MPEG LA is taking a major step toward actually offering such a license.

That might reassure some players who are interested in … Read more

LG attempting to stop the sale of PS3 in U.S.

LG Electronics wants the U.S. International Trade Commission to bar the import of the PlayStation 3 into the United States, according to a complaint.

The complaint, filed Friday with the ITC and first reported by Bloomberg yesterday, claims that the Blu-ray player in the PlayStation 3 violates several of LG's patents. The company cited Sony, Sony Corporation of America, Sony Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Sony Computer Entertainment America in the complaint, according to the docket page on the ITC's Web site.

The ITC 337 Law Blog, which is run by a private law firm, posted the … Read more

Microsoft outlines patent reform goals for U.S.

As the holder of more than 25,000 patents and pending patent applications in the United States, Microsoft knows a thing or two about getting them. And a long history of litigation is further proof of its intent on defending such intellectual property.

But in a post yesterday by Senior VP and General Counsel Brad Smith and VP and Deputy General Counsel Horacio Guitierrez on the company's Microsoft on the Issues blog, the pair outlined some things about the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that the company believes could use some work.

"In our view, the … Read more