Today President Barack Obama signed a bill into law that is being touted as the biggest reform to patent law since 1952. The America Invents Act changes the way the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hands out patents from a convoluted, drawn-out process of researching who the inventor of a technology was to a first-to-file approach. This will shift the burden from the PTO to the...
It's a war out there. Whether it be Apple relentlessly kicking HTC and Samsung into the ground, Microsoft going after royalty fees or Nokia taking on the half-eaten Apple it's a kill zone and patents are the centre of attention. Because of the recent acquisition of Motorola (for more patents) by Google and the scale of attack from companies outside the Android castle, many OEMs are...
Microsoft today secured a deal from Acer and ViewSonic for licensing patents related to Android IP on both companies' phone offerings as well as ViewSonic's Chrome tablets. Continuing the trend of using their industry-wide licensing deal, Microsoft was able to settle peacefully with both companies, avoiding any sort of litigation, unlike with Motorola who are being sued by Microsoft (...
Good news for Microsoft as their patent for the Metro UI, filed under "Visual motion for user interface feedback", has been approved by the USPTO. The patent was originally filed in early 2010 but finally approved on August 18th. We're still waiting on the official patent number to appear, which we're told usually takes a few days to be generated and listed--for now we have the issue...
Just as we were lamenting Motorola Mobility's position on using Windows Phone (and their stock situation), Google comes out of nowhere and buys them up out for $12.5 billion. From the press release they mention how they want to "...supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will...
We're almost over this whole Google/Microsoft catfight that's been happening. Almost. While good theater, it's not really solving any problems nor addressing them and it makes both companies look bad. Of course we'll start the blame with Google, who's original missive was more PR than anything and most agree, poorly planned. Last night, Microsoft seemingly pulled the rug from underneath...
A few weeks ago, Google was involved in bidding for 6,000 patents being offered by Nortel, which many thought if Google should win, would beef up their defense against patent litigation. Instead, they lost to a consortium of Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Sony, EMC and Ericsson for $4.5 billion. Basically everyone won except Google. At the time this story was spun two ways: Nortel's patent...
An initial ruling against HTC by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) is evidently starting to have ripple effects. The case was brought by Apple, who is accusing HTC of infringing upon 10 patents of which the ITC found HTC to be violating two. Two caveats: the ITC's ruling is preliminary and not final but, Apple just needs to win on one patent infringement claim to potentially...
Good news everyone! Microsoft has signed a licensing agreement with GeoVector Corporation, a company who actually held the original trademark on "Augmented Reality". The deal is to bring GeoVector patented "Augmented Reality, pointing-based local search and other aspects of spatially aware mobile computing" to what else, but Windows Phones. The deal is non-exclusive, meaning our rivals...
Apple is on a fight against the world it seems (albeit Microsoft is no angel) when it comes to smartphone patents (and insane term trademarks). I must admit that I find it strange, not to mention anyone who's not familiar with the ins and outs of smartphone technology who could wonder "wouldn't this be the same if Sony were to sue Microsoft over competing with the PlayStation?"...
Yet more royalty charges from Microsoft (remember the report of HTC paying Microsoft $5 per device?), this time it's for Samsung, the largest Android OEM. The software behemoth is requesting a royalty fee of $15 per Android device sold by the handset manufacturer. This would prove to be a monster of a revenue stream with analysts forecasting Samsung selling around 19 million units...
On Monday, Microsoft filed a motion for summary judgment with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in an attempt to get Apple's trademark of the term "App Store" denied. They argue that the term is too generic to be awarded to just one company, as it is made up of two everyday, commonly used words. As evidence of its generality, MS also shrewdly submitted an interview with Apple CEO...
Sony is the latest company to file patent complaints and litigation accusing LG Electronics of patent infringement. Sony has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission claiming LG's phones and modems violate several proprietary technologies including photo-based caller ID. And, as what's become a traditional companion to filing an ITC complaint, Sony has also filed...
Microsoft has filed suit against Motorola today in both the International Trade Commission and U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Microsoft is claiming that Motorola has infringed on nine of Microsoft's patents in their Android smartphones. The patents in question relate to the synchronization of email, calendars and contacts, scheduling of meetings, and...
Not that we didn't see this coming but HTC just announced that they are suing Apple for allegedly violating five un-mentioned patents. This comes just a little over a month after Apple filed suit against HTC. They are seeking to halt importation and sale of the iPhone, iPod and iPad, which as we all know probably won't happen. The rest of the press release (after the break) is mostly an...
[Ed. note: This story was originally posted at AndroidCentral.com] Microsoft issued a news release late late night, announcing it signed a patent agreement with HTC over its entire line of smartphones running the Android operating system. Specific terms of the deal, including how many patents or what they cover, were not immediately released. Microsoft's statement did say the...
The lawyers are in overdrive today as Apple's filed a patent infringement lawsuit against smartphone manufacturer HTC, a longtime partner of Microsoft and Windows Mobile. To help keep our ducks in a row, we're going to do the bulk of our coverage over at AndroidCentral. The lawsuit doesn't specifically target Windows Mobile or Android -- we just want to get things right, in one place....
Ah, summer. A time for basking in the sun, taking (now painfully expensive) roadtrips, and suing the everloving crap out of anybody and everybody you can think of. That's what Typhoon Touch Tech and Nova Mobility systems think, anyway; they've filed suit against pretty much every darn touchscreen manufacturer on the face of the dearth, from Apple to HTC to Samsung. You might just...
Dig this new HTC patent [via via Unwired View, who also composited the image above from the patent] for a new smartphone design. The basic idea - get a dual slider without having to actually build two keyboards. Looks pretty slick, though I'm not personally a fan -- the whole point of a slider is to be able to completely hide the keyboard behind the screen. With this method, the...
Oh JOY! More lawsuit-fun-time in the fountain of patent wars that is the smartphone industry. This time around it's RIM vs. Motorola, both saying that the other is infringing on their smartphone patents. RIM started the excitement on the 16th, claiming that Motorola violated 9 patents and that Motorola has been charging “exorbitant royalties” for licenses on patents that Moto has....