patent infringement - 4/4 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jul

Apple Started It - Unsealed Ruling Indicates That Apple Infringed HTC’s Intellectual Property

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in HTC, News

Developments in the Apple v HTC patent war are coming in fast and it looks like things are heating up.

In a preliminary ruling (discussed further in our earlier article) the US International Trade Commission (ITC) found HTC liable for infringing Apple’s patents. Google’s executive chairman then hit back with his view on Apple’s strategy of litigating its competition into oblivion.

But, now Bloomberg is reporting that an unsealed (not made public) ruling dating back to July 1 may have turned the tide in favour of HTC. According to the earlier ITC ruling Apple’s Mac OS X is utilising technology that infringes two GPU patents owned by S3 Graphics.

Jul

Schmidt To Apple: Stop Litigating And Start Innovating

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, HTC, News

In a recent patent suit between HTC and Apple, the US International Trade Commission found the Taiwanese manufacturer liable on two counts of patent infringement in its Android-based devices (see our earlier post for a detailed analysis of the case and its effects).

Although this suit only involves Apple and HTC, its legal ramifications could affect Android as a whole - since the alleged infringements are core parts of the Android OS developed by Google.

Giving his views at Google's Mobile Revolution conference in Tokyo, Google's mouthpiece and executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has hit back with a stinging criticism of Apple's lawsuits.

Jun

Lodsys Patent Trolling Continues - What Should Android Developers Do, Google?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Update: Cory Trese's infringement notice was apparently sent to him by mistake - whatever that means. He received a call from Lodsys stating they'd like all the materials they sent returned. What's happened? Who knows, but as someone in our team chat room sarcastically stated - maybe they forgot a zero somewhere.

We received this tweet from Cory Trese yesterday, developer of a game called Star Traders 2, in regard to a settlement offer he received from Lodsys LLC (a patent troll shell corporation):

This isn't a friendly letter. In fact, it's probably downright terrifying as a prospect to most developers, and understandably so.

Oct

The Revenge Of El Jobso - Apple Countersues Motorola

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News

At the beginning of the month (October 6 to be exact), Motorola sued Apple for infringing 18 of its patents, including ones as diverse as antenna design and multi-design synchronization. Of course, being a company run by El Jobso himself, Apple just couldn't help it - they just had to strike back.

And strike back the fruit-themed company has, claiming Motorola's Android phones infringe on six Apple patents, including (but not limited to) the:

Droid
Droid 2
Droid X
Cliq
Cliq XT
Backflip
Devour A555
Devour i1
Charm

The patents?

7,812,828, Ellipse Fitting for Multi-Touch Surfaces
7,663,607, Multipoint Touchscreen
5,379,430, Object-Oriented System Locator System
7,497,949, Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics
6,493,002, Method and Apparatus for Displaying and Accessing Control and Status Information in a Computer System
5,838,315, Support for Custom User-Interaction Elements in a Graphical, Event-Driven Computer System

It's not surprising to see Apple re-enforcing its scrolling patent (that would be patent #7,497,949) yet again, and since the company filed the cases in the Western District of Wisconsin (a court with a reputation for being nice to the plaintiffs), Motorola might be in deep with the sharks here.

Oct

Microsoft Files A Patent Suit Against Motorola Over Android

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News

First it was Apple vs. HTC, then it was Motorola vs. us power users, and now it's Microsoft facing off against the third of those three companies.

That's right - Microsoft has just filed an ITC complaint against Motorola over infringements of nine patents allegedly violated in Motorola's Android-related devices. Although Microsoft did not specify the exact patents violated in their press release (which you can read in its entirety below), the company did say that they are related to "synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power." I do not see how Motorola has violated any of these; what’s more, all of the violations mentioned are most likely built into the Android OS and therefore not Motorola's responsibility, but then again, sometimes companies make as little sense as the devices they push past the FCC.