03
Dec
galaxy-tab-8.9

Respite For Samsung As U.S. Judge Denies Apple's Request To Block Sales Of Galaxy Devices

Posted by in Android OS, Legal, News, Samsung

The patent wars between Samsung and Apple are stretching everyone pretty thin, lawyers and judges from 10 countries are contending with over 20 cases, manufacturers are having to make last minute adjustments to devices, and most importantly reporters, including yours truly, are having a hard time keeping up with it all.

Bringing the discussion stateside, on Friday a U.S. District Judge in California denied Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung. Apple had earlier sued Samsung in the U.S. claiming that the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copied the iPhone and the iPad. However, the Judge disagreed and noted that "it is not clear that an injunction on Samsung's accused devices would prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed".

29
Nov
htc-logo

HTC Might Ignore IPCom And Keep Selling Smartphones In Germany, Despite Injunction

Posted by in HTC, Legal, News

If you haven't heard, Germany has pretty much become the hotspot for smartphone and tablet patent litigation. Most recently, HTC has been hitting headlines in its ongoing battle against IPCom, an intellectual property firm. IPCom claims that HTC's smartphones violate a number of its patents in the realm of 3G GSM technology. HTC says that the last time it made a phone which might have violated those patents was in 2009, and that it has since developed a workaround which does not infringe on IPCom's patents.

A court in Karlsruhe issued an injunction against HTC because of these patents last week.

29
Nov
image

Apple Is At It Again, Seeks Injunction Against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1N In Germany

Posted by in Android OS, Galaxy Tab 10.1N, Legal, News, Samsung

After winning multiple preliminary injunctions against Samsung's Galaxy Tab family (including the 10.1, 8.9, and 7.7) in Germany in the recent past, Apple is looking to add one more device to the list: Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1N.

For those who don't know, the Galaxy Tab 10.1N is exactly the same as the original 10.1, except that it has a new form factor, adding a silver bezel and repositioning the tab's speaker grills.

Despite the fact that Samsung created the new design while closely collaborating with their German lawyers, Apple seems to think the redesign didn't go quite far enough. The Cupertino giant has filed a motion for preliminary injunction on the 10.1N, and the Düsseldorf Regional Court has planned a hearing for December 22, 2011.

23
Nov
image

Carrier IQ Drops Legal Threats, Apologizes To Developer Trevor Eckhart

Posted by in Legal, News

Trevor Eckhart, a developer involved in uncovering a huge security vulnerability that affected several HTC devices, was recently threatened by Carrier IQ (CIQ), a company involved in gathering various forms of user data and sending it to carriers or manufacturers for analysis. For those who haven't  been following the story, here's what happened:

Trevor Eckhart found several training manuals on CIQ's website. These were publicly available. Trevor shared them with the community, explaining just how far-reaching CIQ's data collection practices are. At this point, CIQ became aware of the fact that sensitive information had been exposed, and pulled the files from their website.

21
Nov
logo_carrieriq

EFF Defends Android Dev Trevor Eckhart From Carrier IQ's Bogus Legal Threats After Exposing Phone Data Logging

Posted by in Android OS, Legal, News

If you don't know who Trevor Eckhart is, you might remember a little piece we published earlier this year about a massive HTC data vulnerability caused by the company's data-logging operations. Trevor was the guy who found that vulnerability and did almost all of the legwork in investigating it. Since then, Trevor has been hard at work looking at more mobile data logging applications used by various manufacturers, including one written by a company called Carrier IQ.

CIQ, as it's more commonly known, harvests various user data from its host device and sends it back to carriers or manufacturers for analysis and record-keeping purposes.

18
Nov
motorola-red-logo

Motorola Says Apple's iCloud Infringes On Patent In Germany, Presiding Judge Seems To Agree

Posted by in Android OS, Legal, Motorola, News

A court in Mannheim, Germany today held a preliminary hearing in a patent dispute between Motorola Mobility and Apple Sales International (a European Apple distribution subsidiary), and it seems like Apple's on the ropes.

While the hearing didn't discuss the particular merits of Motorola's patent infringement claim against Apple, the presiding judge issued substantial blows to Apple's defense by indicating that he believed the patent-in-suit was ripe for trial. The judge also seemed to agree with Motorola's reading of that patent (also known as "construction claims") in important ways that would allow it a broader scope of applicability at trial.

The judge did not seem interested in many of Apple's defenses, such as Motorola's claim lacking specificity, the patent in question being invalid, or that the patent should be construed more narrowly.

02
Nov
troll-web_thumb

Patent Trolls: What Is Lodsys Actually Asking App Developers To Pay? You Might Be Surprised

Posted by in Android OS, Editorials, Legal

OK, before I even get into this post, let me be clear: this is based on old news. However, it was news that no one seemed to pick up at the time, and when we discovered it, we thought it was quite interesting.

If you're unfamiliar with Lodsys, let's start with a history lesson. They're better known as the shell corporation offspring of a company called Intellectual Ventures LLC, a patent clearinghouse owned by a group of, shall we say, enterprising individuals. Their purpose? Buy as many viable tech patents as possible, and force major corporations into licensing (paying royalties) deals when infringement on any of these patents, which is actively searched for, is discovered.

24
Oct
verizonwirelesslogo

PSA: Verizon Locking Bootloaders On LTE Devices Likely Does Not Violate FCC Block C Spectrum Rules

Posted by in Legal, News, Verizon Wireless

It seems there's been some renewed interest in the subject of Block C LTE "no locking" provisions after news that the Motorola RAZR will come equipped with a locked bootloader per Verizon's request. About four months ago, I published an article on this very topic. To summarize: Verizon can basically do almost anything it wants with handsets on its network in the name of reasonable network management - subject to a few limitations and caveats.

But before we get into the reasoning for this, let's talk history.

The Block C Auction Of 2008

Back in 2008, the FCC auctioned off a block of the 700MHz wireless spectrum dubbed "Block C." Verizon was the sole purchaser of the block, having bid $4.7 billion to acquire the chunk of spectrum.

20
Oct
galaxy-nexus-product-image-1

Samsung Decides Galaxy Nexus Was Not Actually Designed To Avoid Apple Patents, "Doesn't Know" How That Rumor Got Started, Nothing To See Here

Posted by in Android OS, Galaxy Nexus, Legal, News, Samsung

Uh-oh. Sounds like Samsung's lawyers heard about Samsung Mobile President Shin Jong-kyun's little statement that the Galaxy Nexus was designed such that no "known" Apple patents were used or infringed on by the phone. This was probably, to be frank, a very stupid thing to say. Aside from basically challenging Apple to take a closer look at the Galaxy Nexus, there's also the fact that, if Jong-kyun's statement was actually correct and Samsung did design the Galaxy Nexus to avoid Apple patents, that Apple's lawyers would love to quote it at various patent infringement trials around the world. 

This could be introduced to a jury as evidence that Samsung had reason to believe, at the point the Galaxy Nexus was designed, that their other products could be infringing on Apple patents.

17
Oct
samsung-logo

Samsung Retaliates Against Apple, Files For Preliminary Injunction To Ban iPhone 4S In Japan And Australia

Posted by in Android OS, Legal, News, Samsung

Samsung just announced in a blog post today, that they have filed preliminary injunctions in the Tokyo District Court and in the New South Wales Registry to ban the sale of Apple's iPhone 4S in Japan and Australia, respectively. Additionally, in Japan, Samsung have also requested an injunction to bar the sale of the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2.

According to Samsung, the injunction request in Australia is premised on Apple infringing various patents relating to wireless telecommunications standards, specifically Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA). In contrast, in Japan Samsung has filed on the basis of Apple infringing one HSPA standard-related patent and three user interface patents.

Page 6 of 9«First...45678...Last»