Patent

Apple settles patent infringement suit with Intertrust Technologies

Cody Lee ∙ April 4, 2014

Apple has reached an out-of-court settlement with Interest Technologies this week. The holding company, which is jointly owned by tech giants Sony and Philips, filed a lawsuit against the iPad-maker last year for allegedly infringing on more than two dozen of its patents on distributed computing.

The original suit didn't layout specifically which patents Intertrust was accusing Apple of infringing, but the company counts digital rights management (or DRM) tech among its inventions. So it's not too surprising that the two sides notified the court on Tuesday that a settlement had been reached...

Apple seeking $2 billion in damages in new Samsung trial

Cody Lee ∙ April 1, 2014

As most of you know probably know by now, round 2 of Apple's US patent battle with Samsung kicked off this week in a San Jose, California court room. The last time these 2 companies met on American soil, in the fall of 2012, Apple was awarded $1 billion in damages.

This time around, the iPad-maker is asking for twice that much. And although it's using different patents, and going after different Samsung devices, it's ultimately trying to prove the same thing as it did before: that Samsung intentionally copied its patented inventions...

Apple’s ‘transparent texting’ tech aims to make it safer to walk and text

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 20, 2018

Last week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application entitled 'Transparent Texting' that Apple filed in late 2012. In it, the company proposes to replace the background image of messaging applications with a live video feed from the device's camera.

This effect would create the illusion that the device has a transparent display, allowing users to see what lies in front of them while they are texting. The goal of the invention is to make it safer for iPhone (and other mobile device) users to text and perform other functions while walking...

BlackBerry wins injunction against Typo keyboard case

Cody Lee ∙ March 29, 2014

BlackBerry won a key victory yesterday in its fight against Typo. A federal judge agreed with the Canadian company that the iPhone keyboard case likely infringes on their patents, and issued a preliminary injunction late Friday to halt sales.

For those that missed it, back in January BlackBerry sued the makers of the Typo iPhone case over patent infringement. The case features a built-in battery, and a physical, backlit keyboard that looks nearly identical to those used in BB devices...

Apple engineer offers detailed look at development of original iPhone software

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting interview with Apple senior software engineer Greg Christie yesterday, in which Christie offers a detailed look at some of the events that led up to the original iPhone. Apparently the Cupertino company gave him permission to discuss the development process of the handset.

Admittedly, a lot of the things mentioned we've heard before—from book excerpts, court testimonies, etc.—but Christie does provide a few new details. For instance, he says at one point Jobs gave him and his team two weeks to come up with something or he would be reassigning the 'iPhone software' project to another group...

Samsung removes standard-essential patents from upcoming Apple trial

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 9, 2014

Apple and Samsung will duke it out in the courtroom over technology patents later this month. As the second California trial looms (it begins March 31), the two technology giants have filed a stipulation with the United States District Court of California which narrows the second case, patent blogger Florian Müeller reported on his blog, FOSS Patents.

Under the stipulation, Samsung withdrew its asserted claims based on three standard-essential patents while Apple dropped all of its counterclaims relating to these patents...

German court dismisses $2 billion patent troll suit against Apple

Cody Lee ∙ February 28, 2014

Earlier this month it was reported that Apple was getting sued for over $2 billion by known patent troll IPCom. The german company alleged that the iPad-maker violated one of its patents pertaining to priority access to channels for emergency responder.

But it doesn't look like the suit will ever make it to trial. FOSS Patents is reporting that in a string of rulings handed down by the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany today, two of IPCom's suits against Apple and one against HTC have been dismissed...

Samsung’s iBeacon is called Flybell

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 21, 2014

2014 could be the year we see indoor positioning and micro-location services become pervasive in our lives. Thank that to iBeacon, an Apple-designed new class of low-powered, low-cost transmitters that can notify nearby iOS 7 devices of their presence.

iBeacon technology can also be used by the Android operating system and chip makers like Qualcomm have taken notice and started churning out low-cost transmitters.

At its core, iBeacon lets iOS devices (or other hardware) send push notifications to other iOS devices in close proximity. Needless to say, fast-follower Samsung does not seem keen on supporting iBeacon in its products and instead is pursuing an in-house built solution.

According to a new patent application published by The United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO), the Galaxy maker's iBeacon is called Flybell and is being described as a “wireless beacon and corresponding software”...

Apple researching headphones with head gestures that track fitness and health data

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 18, 2014

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Tuesday published a new Apple patent No. 8,655,004 for a “sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets”.

The system could also employ head gestures to control various features and could be a nice companion for an Apple wearable device project.

The invention encloses integrated activity monitors in a set of headphones to pick up such health and fitness related metrics as temperature, perspiration, heart rate data and more...

Apple top target for patent trolls, sued 92 times in 3 years

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 6, 2016

Apple has taken much criticism over the years for its patent litigation efforts, for going after Samsung, Motorola and other companies for violating its intellectual property. But what many don't know is that the iPad-maker defends itself against just as many lawsuits.

In fact, according to some recently filed FTC documents, Apple has been litigated against by PAEs (or Patent Assertion Entity, commonly known as a patent troll) 92 times during the past 3 years. And that's just the number of cases that actually made it to a courtroom...

German patent troll hits Apple with $2+ billion claim over standards-essential patent

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 24, 2017

Apple and its billions are definitely the favorite target of patent trolls around the world and this newest case just exemplifies the fact. IPCom GmbH, a German patent holding firm, is suing Apple for patent infringement and is seeking north of $2 billion in damages over the use of a standards-essential wireless patent pertaining to an emergency service standard.

The use of the emergency service standard is required by law in many countries around the world! A trial in this case is scheduled for Tuesday, February 11, before Germany's Mannheim Regional Court...

A list of devices and patents involved in upcoming Apple-Samsung trial

Cody Lee ∙ February 5, 2014

Ahead of their high-profile trial, scheduled to start in March, Apple and Samsung have submitted a list of all of the patents they are accusing each other of infringing, and applicable devices. Well this is a pared down list, trimmed by each side at Judge Koh's orders.

This is the second time the two will meet in Koh's northern California courtroom. The first time around, Samsung was found guilty of infringing on a few Apple patents and was forced to pay close to $1 billion in damages. This time, there may be even more at stake...