This is a pretty big deal: the United States Patent and Trademark Office has just tentatively invalidated Apple's rubber-banding patent. This is the infamous '381 patent that covers the 'bouncing' effect when scrolling on a touch screen.
Why is this a big deal? Because this was one of the major patents Apple used in its $1 billion victory against Samsung back in August. And if the USPTO's decision holds true, Samsung could be looking at a much smaller penalty...
Apple's patent attorneys are busy again. The Cupertino, California company has filed two patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, related to extending AirPlay mirroring to iPads and iPhones, as well as describing how Siri scans through databases to match searches.
In the first application, entitled "Gesture Visualization and Sharing Between Electronic Devices and Remote Displays," Apple talks of protecting technology allowing a touch screen device to share its screen with a second, larger display. Because the patent application mentions a touch interface, reports suggest the patent is limited to the iPhone and iPad...
Apple must have really hated divulging all of those secrets during the high-profile patent trial against Samsung this summer. We saw everything from iPhone and iPad prototypes, to how Apple creates its products.
And it looks like we're about to learn some more interesting information, as Judge Lucy Koh handed down an order late last night denying Apple's motion to keep certain financial documents sealed from the public...
Back in July, the High Court in London ruled against Apple in a patent suit against Samsung, saying that consumers were unlikely to mistake its iPad with Samsung's Galaxy Tab because it "wasn't as cool."
As a result of the ruling, Judge Colin Birss ordered Apple to run advertisements on both its UK website and in British publications stating that Samsung didn't copy the iPad to correct the damaging impression.
Well, Apple might want to start planning its marketing campaign. Because it just lost the appeal...
We know Apple often patents stuff just so rivals couldn't patent the same invention. That's what other companies are doing as well. But Apple, more than any other company, depends on being able to protect its ideas and leverage patents to prevent copycat products from eating into its sales. The iPhone maker has been on somewhat of a patent spree lately and today has been granted a key patent for design of the original iPad tablet computer...
This year's roundup of iPhone rumors, like many years before it, included chatter that the iPhone 5 would finally receive NFC technology. But as we found out in September, those reports were once again unfounded.
Despite the fact that several Android handsets support the wireless connection, Apple has yet to add it to its mobile products. But according to a newly granted patent, it may be working on some kind of alternative...
In late August, a District Court in Tokyo ruled that Samsung's mobile devices do not violate Apple's patents. Not only did Apple lose the lawsuit, but it was also ordered to pay all attorney fees and court-related costs.
Obviously, the decision didn't sit well with the Cupertino company, and they're not giving up without a fight. Reports surfaced late last night that it has filed an appeal with Japan's Intellectual Property High Court...
Apple Thursday won a temporary reprieve from a South Korean court, keeping the Cupertino, Calif. company's iPhone and iPad on store shelves in that country. A Seoul judge whose court in August ruled products by both Apple and Samsung should be yanked from stores, approved Apple's request for a stay while the U.S. firm appeals.
According to Bloomberg, Samsung has yet to file for a similar injunction. The original ruling by the Seoul Central District Court also banned sales of the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1. The court ruled both Apple and Samsung guilty of violating each others' patents...
Apple, Google, Samsung and others meet today - not in a courtroom but in neutral Switzerland. The discussion, moderated by the UN's International Telecommunications Union, focuses on whether the key principal of patent licensing is preventing products from coming to market.
The talks follow Apple and Samsung high-profile patent dispute and the EU investigating whether a number of companies are abusing the patent guidelines...
Handset maker Motorola Mobility, a Google subsidiary, has pulled all of its phones and tablets from the German market, following unfavorable rulings over patents. This has got to be a huge blow as the search Goliath has been struggling to return Motorola to profitability after it had acquired the ailing cell phone company for $12.5 billion, gaining a treasure trove of 17,000 mobile technology patents. Motorola reported an operating loss of $233 million during the second quarter so you could imagine that any disruption in sales is not going to look good in its next earnings report...
An interesting patent grant surfaced in the United States Patent & Trademark Office's (USPTO) database this morning related to a two-step screen unlock feature. This is Apple's second patent grant for the feature, with first patent issued in June 2012. One of the inventors listed on the second grant for a dual slider locking approach is Apple's iOS chief and Senior Vice President Scott Forstall...
A little over a year ago, a patent licensing company by the name of Lodsys started going after app developers with its claimed in-app purchasing patents, threatening legal action if they didn't agree to licensing deals.
The company went on to file infringement suits against a handful of developers, and eventually Apple got involved. And we haven't really heard anything since then, until today, when Lodsys published a new blog post...