24
Nov
apollo

Apollo, CM's Music Player, Pulled From The Play Store Due To Alleged Copyright Infringement

Posted by in Applications, News

On Monday of this week, Apollo - the default music player in Cyanogenmod - was released to the Play Store in both free and paid variants. As of yesterday, just four days after its release, both versions of the app have been pulled due to alleged copyright infringement.

Andrew Neal, the app's creator, took to his Google+ page to let users know what happened:

Hey, just to let those of you who noticed that Apollo and Apollo+ are no longer in the Play Store know, MusixMatch filed a complaint and had them removed for alleged copyright infringement due to the way that Apollo fetches lyrics.

24
Jul
joker-burning-money

Apple Wants $2.5 Billion From Samsung For Infringed Patents, Offers Half A Cent For Each Samsung Patent

Posted by in Android OS, Legal, News, Samsung

Over at FOSSPatents, Florien Mueller has gotten his hands on a copy of a filing containing Apple's damages claim against Samsung in their much-publicized California lawsuit. The contents indicate that Apple is seeking $2 billion in unjust enrichment damages (the amount Samsung has wrongly profited infringing Apple's design patents), along with $500 million in lost profits. A smaller $25 million royalty for various technical patents like tap to zoom and overscroll bounce is included, but only in regard to a few products.

The design patents are the damages headliners because only design patents offer the option of seeking unjust enrichment as a remedy (there are various and good reasons for this).

14
Jul
fujifilm

Fujifilm Sues Motorola Mobility Over Android Patents, Takes A Comfy Seat On The Bandwagon

Posted by in Motorola, News

When you try to think of companies that have a motivation to sue over smartphone patents involving Android, Fujifilm may very well be close to the bottom of the list, but you'd be wrong. The company has recently filed a lawsuit against Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility for infringing four of its patents.

The brouhaha began back in April 2011 (for those counting, that's a solid four months before Google even announced its acquisition of the company). Fujifilm claims that several Motorola phones infringe on one or all of the following patents which include, in dramatically oversimplified terms for the layman:

07
Jul
2012-07-07_14h52_19

[Update: Now 1-2 Weeks] Hey Look: The Galaxy Nexus Is Back On The Play Store, Will Ship In 2-3 Weeks

Posted by in Galaxy Nexus, Google, News

Just a few days after the Galaxy Nexus was removed from the Play Store following an injunction in Apple's suit against Samsung. However, as of today, the flagship Android phone is available from the Play Store again. While customers can purchase the device, the site says it won't ship for 2-3 weeks. This is in contrast to the immediate availability the device had prior to the injunction.

Update: And now the site says that the Galaxy Nexus will ship in 1-2 weeks. We're unsure what caused the change, but the net effect is still largely the same: you can't get it immediately, but soon.

03
Jul
samsung-galaxy-nexus_thumb

The Galaxy Nexus Is No Longer Available For Purchase From Google Play In The US

Posted by in Galaxy Nexus, Google, News

If you just felt a disturbance in the internet, as if millions of Android users cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced, here's why: the Galaxy Nexus is no longer available via the Google Play Store. This comes after Apple won an injunction against the sale of Google's flagship device last week. As of now, the device is not allowed to be sold in the US which includes, but is obviously not limited to, online sales from Google.

2012-07-03_23h22_10

At the moment, the site merely offers users the chance to sign up to be notified when the device will become available.

02
Jul
nexus7tiny

Nokia Claims Google's Nexus 7 Infringes WiFi Patent, Miraculously Hasn't Sued Everyone Ever Just Yet

Posted by in ASUS, Google, News

In the tech world, it's almost impossible to launch a high-profile device without someone claiming you've infringed a patent somewhere. Today, it's Nokia's turn with the Nexus 7. The Finnish company has stated that it believes the Nexus 7 violates some of its standards-essential patents relating to WiFi. The announcement seems to be a more casual nod to Google and ASUS to simply fork over a bit of cash, akin to the Rob Schneider prompting Kevin for a tip in Home Alone 2*.

Said Nokia to the Inquirer:

"Nokia has more than 40 licensees, mainly for its standards essential patent portfolio, including most of the mobile device manufacturers.

31
May
google-android-oracle

Judge: Oracle's Java APIs Are Not Copyrightable As Asserted, Copyright Claims Against Android Dismissed

Posted by in Android OS, Legal, News

We're hearing via The Verge that Judge William Alsup has just handed down his decision on the copyrightability of Oracle's 37 Java API's, asserted by Oracle as having been infringed by Google in the Android operating system. This is probably the most important issue of the entire case. While a jury decided that Google did infringe Oracle's APIs as asserted by Oracle, that decision hinged on the assumption that the APIs were in fact copyrightable in the way Oracle had insisted they were.

Alsup determined that Oracle's API's are not, in fact, copyrightable in their "sequence, structure, and organization," and the related infringement claims against Google have been dismissed.

23
May
courtroom

Jury Finally Decides: Google Did Not Infringe Oracle's Patents With Its Use Of Android

Posted by in Google, News

Google and Oracle have been going at it for weeks now over both patent and copyright infringement claims made by the latter company. At least one issue is settled, though, as the jury on the case has decided that Google did not infringe any of Oracle's patents with Android. This is only a small part of Oracle's assault on Google. The larger issue is on the matter of copyright infringement, but at least on the patent issue, Google seems to be in the clear.

It's been a long road to get here, as the jury has been debating the matter for at least a week.

21
May
htc-logo

[Update: HTC Responds] HTC: "Some" Smartphones Have Cleared US Customs Review And Are On Their Way To Carriers

Posted by in HTC, Legal, News

Update: We've received an official statement from an HTC spokesperson on the situation with US Customs, and it basically confirms what was said to the Taiwanese stock exchange. Here it is:

“Each imported HTC model must be reviewed by Customs and will be released once Customs officials have completed the inspection.  Some models have gone through inspection and been released to our carrier customers.  We don't have the status of each specific device model at this time, but we are working closely with Customs. We remain confident that this issue will be resolved soon.”

HTC Spokesperson

There you have it - things are happening, but HTC is unable to confirm exactly what models are now getting through.

07
May
jurybox

Analysis: Google Moving For Likely Mistrial In Copyright Portion Of Oracle Java Case, But Big Questions Remain

Posted by in Legal, News
Last Updated: June 2nd, 2012

You've probably already read headlines in the last hour or two proclaiming that Google has "lost" its copyright case against Oracle, and in the strictest sense of the word, it has. Google lost on a number of counts, including the most important one, question one in the jury instructions. It also lost on a count involving nine lines of code that have long-since been removed from Android.

The first question, though, asked the jurors whether Google's use of 37 Java API packages, taken as a group, constituted an infringement of Oracle's copyrighted works. The jury, responding unanimously, answered that question with a "yes." But question 1 contained a part two, and therefore a dependent unanimity requirement (answers on all parts of the question must be unanimous):

Q1

Jury instructions via FOSSPatents

If you know anything about copyrights (and if you're on the internet a lot, you probably do know more than most people), you know that part two of question one asks the jurors something very important: was Google's use of Oracle's Java APIs fair?

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