05
May
SergeyBrin_1508134c

[Not As Good As It Sounds] Judge Forces Oracle To Throw Out 129 Of Its Patent Claims Against Google

Posted by in Android OS, News

File this under "things that look good on paper." On Tuesday, a federal judge for the Northern District of California issued an order forcing Oracle and Google, in their fight over various Java patents allegedly infringed by Android, to reduce the number of patent claims and defenses thereto to a "triable" number. That number? Three. And Google will be allowed eight "prior art references" to defend against those claims. (Note: A "prior art reference" is a way of showing that a patent was trying to patent something someone else had already invented prior to the filing, a complete defense against patent infringement, invalidating the patent in question)

Oracle's complaint ended up amounting to 132 patent claims against Google's Android mobile operating system - a staggering number for any court.

04
Apr
Android-Money

Google Bids Almost $1 Billion On Patent Portfolio To Protect Android, Chrome

Posted by in Android OS, Development, Editorials, News

Well, not solely for Android and Chrome - but presumably those products are the headliners affected by this patent bid. Google is currently bidding on a collection of over 6,000 patents held by Nortel Networks, which is selling the portfolio as part of bankruptcy proceedings. Google tossed its name in the hat with an initial offering of $900,000,000 - not exactly chump change.

Many of the patents relate to wireless technology (such as LTE) and data networking, but undoubtedly Google found some of them to be in the particular interest of protecting Android and Chrome, as Google's General Counsel indicted on the company's blog.

21
Jan
Capture

Updated: Oracle vs. Google: It's Not Looking Good For Android

Posted by in Editorials, News

Update: In response to the ZDNet article, it seems like Mueller may well have been incorrect about the "additional instances" of possible infringement he claims to have found. Exhibit J (linked as "6 pages of code") from Oracle's amended complaint is not addressed in the ZDNet article. We make no claims as to the validity of Oracle or Mueller's assertion; we are merely commenting on the situation.

Many people are confused about what it is Mueller is saying about copyrighted code, and it's an understandably complex topic, one I don't claim to fully comprehend. Those who offer evidence that "debunks" Mueller's additional files clearly know a lot more about code than I do.

30
Oct
10-30-10applemotopt

The Revenge Of El Jobso - Apple Countersues Motorola

Posted by 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.

10-30-10applemotopt

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.

25
Oct
image

Google Gets Sued Over Android And Java Yet Again, This Time By Gemalto

Posted by in HTC, Motorola, News, Samsung

As if Oracle's, Microsoft's, and Apple's [1] [2] suits weren't giving Android enough headache, today, Gemalto, an Amsterdam-based digital security company, added some fuel to the flames by filing a patent infringement suit against Google and its partners HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. The suit claimed that Android and the Dalvik operating environment incorporated Gemalto's patented Java Card technology without the company's permission.

The Wall Street Journal explained in more detail:

According to the complaint on the website of the U.S. law firm hired by Gemalto, McKool Smith, the Java Card Technology enables Java applications and applications developed in other high level programming languages to run on resource-constrained devices such as smart cards and mobile phones.

12
May
HTC Logo 150x150

HTC Files Patent Suit Against Apple – The Circle Of Life Continues

Posted by in HTC, News

It looks like the patent war between Apple and HTC is beginning to heat up. Apple fired the opening shot two months ago when they filed suit against HTC, claiming they infringed on a number of their patents, and until today, things kept fairly quiet. However, as expected, HTC won’t give up with out a fight, and has retaliated by filing their own patent suit with the ITC asking that all imports and sales of iPhones, iPads and iPods be halted.

The scope of the suit HTC has filed is not as encompassing as Apple’s original filing, covering only 5 patents, where Apple’s suit covered 20.

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