For Samsung, even March 2014 is too early for Galaxy S3 suit

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 8, 2013

After Apple last September filed a motion to add the then a few months old Galaxy S III to its ongoing patent lawsuit against Samsung, and six more Galaxies on Black Friday, it was reported that a trial in that patent infringement case had been scheduled for March 2014. Needless to say, by the time this suit wraps up, Samsung will have sold plenty of flagship devices included in the suit.

Indeed, the Galaxy S III was introduced in May 2012. Samsung is now set to unveil its successor at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall as early as next week. But apparently even March 2014 is too early for Samsung as it now knows the hearings are postponed until it has a chance to exhaust appeals related to the $1.05 August 2012 verdict… Read More

 

Apple prevails in UK’s Samsung 3G suit

By Ed Sutherland on Mar 7, 2013

Apple scored another legal victory against rival Samsung. In a UK court, a judge Wednesday ruled that the iPhone maker does not infringe patents held by the South Korean-based Android smartphone manufacturer. The court’s decision marks more than two-dozen failed attempts by Samsung to claim it is owed royalties on standard-essential patents.

The company had alleged Apple did not pay royalties to use its 3G wireless technology patents in the iPhone… Read More

 

Legislation to legalize cell phone unlocking looms

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 7, 2013

After the White House last week weighed in on the still illegal cell phone unlocking in the United States, drawing responses from carriers, The Library of Congress and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden announced on Twitter yesterday his proposal of a new bill dubbed the Wireless Device Independence Act to ensure that owners of mobile phones are allowed to bypass copy protection and unlock their devices without being scrutinized as criminals.

Arguing “it’s a freedom issue”, the Senator confirms the bill seeks to amend a section of the United States Code covering the circumvention of copyright protection systems. A few other lawmakers voiced their support for unlocking as well, having announced plans to introduce legislation to make the practice legal again… Read More

 

Apple asks judge to dismiss iPhone monopoly lawsuit

By Ed Sutherland on Mar 6, 2013

Is Apple operating a monopoly? That’s the question before an Oakland, California judge. Tuesday, the iPhone and iPad maker urged the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed in 2011, alleging the company runs a monopoly by offering apps for the smartphone only on the App Store. Apple underscores it doesn’t set prices for third-party software and argues charging developers 30 percent to distribute items for iPhones, iPods and iPads on its App Store does not violate antitrust laws… Read More

 

Judge slashes $450M from $1B Apple v. Samsung verdict

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 1, 2013

United States District Judge Lucy Koh who oversees the Apple v. Samsung blockbuster trial, dropped a bombshell on Friday. Citing “an impermissible legal theory”, she announced a drastic decrease of the $1.05 billion verdict from August 2012 by $450 million, leaving “poor” Apple with a rather “paltry” $599 million. She has also denied Apple’s request for an increase in damages and ordered a new trial for fourteen outdated Samsung products… Read More

 

Apple opposes iPhone tracking class-action bid as ‘desperate’

By Ed Sutherland on Mar 1, 2013

Apple is once again in U.S. District Court, attempting to derail a lawsuit claiming apps for the iPhone and iPad collected location data and other personal information without explicit permission from users. Responding Thursday to an effort by plaintiffs’ attorneys to classify the lawsuit a class action, Apple’s legal team argued no harm was suffered and suggested the call for class action status is a “desperate attempt” to collect legal fees… Read More

 

Samsung hires judge who ruled against Apple

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 28, 2013

Remember a UK judge who took at face value the ruling that Galaxy devices didn’t infringe any of Apple’s patents because Samsung’s tablets “are not as cool” as the iPad? The one who recently chastised Apple for lack of integrity and opined for the appeals court it should be ordered to apologize in newspaper ads for asserting Samsung’s tablets had copied the iPad? Yeah, that guy.

A well-known patent blogger revealed Thursday that same judge is now receiving paychecks from Samsung as a legal expert through a law firm which represents Samsung Electronics in its case against Ericsson. Conflict of interest, much? Read More

 

Samsung fails in its bid to block iPhone and iPad sale in Japan

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 28, 2013

Samsung has lost its patent lawsuit over Apple’s iPhone and iPad in Japan as a Tokyo court ruled Thursday in favor of Apple. Needless to say, Samsung said it was disappointed by the court’s decision and promised to conduct a thorough review of the ruling and “take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights”, Reuters reported this morning.

The Tokyo District Court said Samsung hadn’t negotiated “sincerely” with Apple over patents, also ruling the Galaxy maker now cannot seek damages from Apple… Read More

 

Brazil lawsuit claims iPad 3 made intentionally obsolete

By Ed Sutherland on Feb 22, 2013

Did Apple withhold features from the third-generation iPad, then make the tablet obsolete just six months afterwards by unveiling the iPad 4 – with the missing items? That’s the accusation being made against Apple in a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in Brazil. At the heart of the lawsuit brought by the Brazilian Institute of Politics and Law Software (IBDI) is the charge Apple released the “new iPad” in May 2012, then in October introduced the iPad 4 alongside the iPad mini. By updating the processor and other features Apple has produced planned obsolescence… Read More

 

Petition to legalize cell phone unlocking will get response from White House

By Cody Lee on Feb 21, 2013

On January 26th of this year, the DMCA exemption that made unlocking your cell phone legal, expired, subsequently making the popular practice illegal. Now, folks who go about unlocking their handsets risk serious legal repercussions.

Obviously, people weren’t too happy with the way this played out, so an online petition was started to re-legalize unlocking. And as of today, that petition has surpassed 100,000 signatures, meaning the White House must issue a response… Read More

 

Apple now a lone holdout in the e-book price fixing suit

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 8, 2013

Last September, three of the nation’s top five book publishers settled with The United States Justice Department (DOJ) over alleged collusion in the pricing of e-books, despite Apple crying foul and accusing Amazon of assisting the government’s agenda. Following DOJ’s deal with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette, Penguin followed suite in December 2012 and today DOJ announced that Macmillan has stricken a similar settlement with Uncle Sam, leaving Apple as a lone holdout in the suit… Read More

 

The iPhone moniker is in jeopardy in Brazil

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 4, 2013

When Apple acquired rights to the iPhone moniker from Cisco ahead of the 2007 iPhone launch, the company probably never dreamed that it could face losing naming rights in Brazil. Reuters in December 2012 relayed a local report explaining that the Brazilian electronics maker IGB Eletrônica SA owns a trademark for the “IPHONE” term in Brazil. And now, another report has it that IGB could indeed be the rightful holder of the iPhone trademark in the country… Read More

 

Court rejects Apple’s request to revive Galaxy Nexus sales ban

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 31, 2013

In another round of legal back and forth, a U.S. appeals court on Thursday again rejected Apple’s attempt at the Galaxy Nexus sales ban, Reuters reports. The news gathering organization characterized the court’s decision as “dashing the iPhone maker’s attempt to recover crucial leverage in the global patent wars”.

Apple could still appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court though success is not guaranteed as the high court “has made it more difficult for patent plaintiffs to secure sales injunctions in recent years”.

The full trial is scheduled for March 2014. The Galaxy Nexus case is based on patents that were not part of the high-stake Apple v. Samsung trial which culminated when a California jury awarded Apple with $1.05 billion in damages in August 2012… Read More

 

The EFF clarifies legality of jailbreaking and unlocking in the US

By Cody Lee on Jan 29, 2013

The big news this week, aside from the new 128GB iPad and the impending jailbreak, has been that unlocking your phone became illegal in the US on Saturday. Law-breakers face a fine of up to $500,000 and/or 5 years in jail.

Well today, the folks over at the EFF (the Electronic Frontier Foundation) commented on the new regulations and have broken down what they really mean for us end-users. There’s both good news and bad news… Read More

 

White House petition goes up to make unlocking phones legal again

By Cody Lee on Jan 29, 2013

By now, you’ve likely heard of the recent change in DMCA policy that makes the act of unlocking newer cell phones illegal. And even though the EFF clarified some things for us earlier today, it still sounds like we’re getting screwed.

In fact, some folks feel so strongly about the new law that they’ve started a White House petition calling for the Obama administration to either rescind the decision, or create a new bill making unlocking permanently legal… Read More

 

12 Apple users in UK sue Google over Safari tracking

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 28, 2013

Although US District Judge Susan Illston recently approved the $22.5 million fine Google agreed to pay in order to settle the FTC claim that it illegally bypassed user privacy settings in Safari, the Internet giant is not yet off the hook over in the United Kingdom, where a group of twelve disgruntled users decided to take the search behemoth to the court over the scandal. A group called “Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking” hired a law firm to file a complaint conveniently timed ahead of the sixth annual Data Privacy Day in the country… Read More

 

Unlocking your phone could cost you up to $500,000

By Cody Lee on Jan 28, 2013

Last week, we reported that unlocking your cell phone was going to become illegal in the US on January 26th. And it did. While there are some exceptions to the law— you can still unlock pre-2013 phones—it’s still devastating for cell phone owners.

And it gets worse. According to a new report, the penalty for breaking this new unlocking law is a fine of up to $500,000, 5 years in jail, or both. That’s right, half a million dollars for unlocking your phone. And yes, that includes first-time offenders… Read More

 

Pressure mounts on Apple to reveal iOS source code

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 25, 2013

Samsung’s first crack at cornering Apple into providing the iOS source code came in November 2011, when it argued at an Australian court it needed to take a look into the iPhone 4S firmware in order to determine the extent of an alleged patent infringement.

And on its own turf in South Korea, the Galaxy maker is putting pressure on the Cupertino, California firm to reveal the iOS 6 source code to judge whether Apple’s mobile operating system – specifically, the Notification Center feature – infringes its technology patents.

To say that Apple wasn’t impressed would be an understatement: lawyers for the iPhone maker called Samsung’s request “insane” and argued its rival is trying to force it into revealing its “most important data”… Read More

 

German court finds Apple to infringe Samsung’s 3G patent

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 25, 2013

A court in Germany has ruled that Apple’s iPhone infringes upon Samsung’s patents related to 3G wireless technology and has issued an order to stay a German Samsung v. Apple lawsuit. Patent blogger Florian Müeller who follows tech litigation explains that the case will be adjudicated only after the validity of this patent. Apple, of course, is challenging the validity of Samsung’s patent, but that will likely take years to resolve… Read More

 

Unlocking a cell phone in the US to become “illegal” this weekend

By Jeff Benjamin on Jan 24, 2013

If you’re interested in taking matters into your own hands when it comes to unlocking you iPhone, then you may want to act fast, or else potentially be at risk of being labeled a law breaker. According to a report by Tech News Daily: On Saturday, January 26th, a DMCA exemption expires that made unlocking a phone on your own terms fully legal.

In all actuality, the exemption was nullified back on October 26 (read the final ruling here), but due to a 90 day grace period of sorts, the final expiration date takes place this weekend. Obviously, unlocking is a big subject here at iDownloadBlog, so we’re interested to hear your thoughts on the matter. Bear in mind that it’s not all gloom and doom, though… Read More

 
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