It's tough for foreign companies to do business in China, so much that even Apple is having a hard time. After the iTunes Movies and iBooks Store ban back in April, the previous generation of iPhones have recently been accused of infringing the desig...
Apple and Samsung — or more precisely, their teams of incredibly well-paid lawyers — can't get enough of each other. This time, Apple claimed Samsung owes it an additional $179 million in supplemental damages (and interest!) because five...
YouTube is no stranger to cases of copyright infringement, and it's lending a hand to video creators who are involved in the disputes. The video-hosting site says that it will cover the legal fees for a few content creators that are fighting the de...
Despite that billion dollar verdict, the legal battle between Samsung and Apple continues, and the most recent happening comes from the ITC. Following up on an ITC administrative law judge's ruling late last year finding that Samsung had infringed a few of Apple's patented designs and tech, the Commission made its final determination today and issued a limited exclusion order for some Samsung devices. In its decision, the Commission found no violations of any of Apple's design patents, and only found that Samsung infringed a pair of patents -- patent number 7,479,949 for touchscreen technology, and patent number 7,912,501 for audio jack I/O circuitry. In doing so, the Commission stated that devices with workarounds to the asserted patents that were found not to infringe by the ALJ are not subject to the exclusion order.
As a result, offending Samsung devices are scheduled to be banned from importation after a 60-day presidential review period. During those two months, the devices can still be sold, but unless Obama steps up for Samsung in the same way he did for Apple in a separate ITC case, we won't be seeing them stateside again. While we don't have an exact list of the affected devices, we do know that the devices at issue are older models like the Continuum, the Transform and the Galaxy S II. So, consumers won't feel much of an impact from the ban, but we bet Apple's legal team will have a much more enjoyable weekend as a result of this latest win.
Update: Samsung has issued a statement on the matter, which can be found after the break
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Apple, Samsung
Source: US ITC
While many can tell the difference between Sky TV services and Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage, that's not necessarily true for everyone. A British court certainly thinks there's room for confusion: it has ruled that SkyDrive infringes BSkyB's trademarks on the Sky name in both the UK and the European Union. The presiding judge didn't believe that Microsoft's use of the "sky" prefix was absolutely necessary, and she showed evidence that at least some of the general public didn't understand which company made what. Microsoft says it plans to appeal the verdict, although there's no guarantee that it will have to relabel SkyDrive if the appeal falls through. Some past trademark lawsuits have led to fines instead of name changes, and we suspect Microsoft would rather pay out than lose brand recognition across a whole continent.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage, Internet, HD, Microsoft
Via: TechCrunch
Source: BAILII
Samsung got a big win in the International Trade Commission today, as the ITC handed down a final ruling finding that several models of AT&T-compatible iPhones and iPads infringe a Samsung patent, and issued an exclusion order preventing them from being imported, sold or distributed in the US. This final ruling comes months after an ALJ determined that Apple did not infringe any of Samsung's IP, but clearly, the commission felt differently upon its review. This final determination holds that AT&T models of the iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G, plus AT&T iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G models infringe four claims of Samsung's patent number 7,706,348 for encoding mobile communications.
The ITC reversed the ALJ's ruling in part based upon modified construction of several key terms in the claims at issue, but upheld the prior decision regarding the other three patents Samsung asserted in the action. So, what does this mean for Apple? Not a tremendous amount, truthfully, as the newly banned devices are no longer Cupertino's standard bearers and account for little of massive profits. Plus, Apple will, no doubt appeal the decision in court. Still, Samsung's bound to feel pretty good about the victory, and every little bit helps in its quest to remain atop the smartphone heap, right?
Source: ITC [PDF]
In with a bang, out with a whimper. After making us fear for the Xbox 360's (shelf) life by delivering an adverse ruling in Motorola's ITC patent infringement case against Microsoft last year, the presiding Administrative Law Judge reversed his stance a couple months ago after prodding by the full Commission. While the finding of non-infringement was good news for Microsoft, the decision still needed to be OK'd by the Commission before the investigation could be officially closed. We thought we weren't going to get a final ruling until later in the summer, but the ITC apparently agreed with the ALJ's initial ruling ahead of schedule, and has decided not to review the decision today. As a result, the investigation is now closed, and this particular battle in the patent wars is finally over.
Update: Naturally Microsoft Corporate VP and deputy General Counsel David Howard is excited to see this case be closed, and issued the following statement:
This is a win for Xbox customers and confirms our view that Google had no grounds to block our products.
Filed under: Mobile, Microsoft, Google
Via: Reuters
Source: USITC [PDF]
Microsoft and Motorola's spat in the International Trade Commission started way back in 2010, but it looks like the case may be finally drawing to a conclusion after an initial ruling in Moto's favor was remanded for a second look. Reuters reports that on remand, the presiding administrative law judge reversed his stance in a new initial determination, clearing Microsoft of the remaining infringement charge for patent number 6,069,896 on wireless peer-to-peer technology. In response to this bit of good news, Microsoft VP Corporate VP and deputy general counsel had this to say:
We are pleased with the Administrative Law Judge's finding that Microsoft did not violate Motorola's patent and are confident that this determination will be affirmed by the Commission.
Back in October of last year, Motorola dropped the two WiFi-related patents it had asserted against Microsoft, and in January of 2013 it dropped both of its H.264 related patents from the ITC proceeding. With this latest ruling, it looks like Microsoft will escape from the ITC scott free, though it's not out of the woods yet, as the final call from the full commission won't occur until July. And, of course, Motorola can always take things to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should it choose to do so. Isn't the system of endless appeals that is the United States judicial system wonderful?
Filed under: Gaming, Wireless, HD, Microsoft, Google
Via: Reuters
Source: ITC Notice [PDF]
Samsung's Galaxy S 4 isn't even available yet, but already it's being eyed for possible patent infringement. According to a report from Korea's Yonhap News, LG suspects the S 4 might violate eye-tracking patents used in the Optimus G Pro. At the crux of this squabble is Samsung's Smart Pause feature, which LG finds similar to its Smart Video technology. Chiefly, LG is focusing on a patent it applied for in 2009, though the company also plans to investigate whether Samsung infringed other eye-tracking patents dating back to 2005. So far, of course, Samsung has denied any wrongdoing, saying its eye-tracking tech is implemented differently and is based on proprietary technology. Given that the phone isn't even out yet, we'll leave it to LG to do its due diligence before accusing Samsung in court.
Filed under: Cellphones, Samsung, LG
Via: The Verge
Source: Yonhap News Agency