Legal

Apple taking China’s patent office and Zhizhen Network Technology to court over Siri

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

According to a report by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, Apple is suing both the country's State Intellectual Property Office and Shanghai-based Zhizhen Network Technology. The main point of contention: patent rights to Siri.

Now, eagled-eyed readers may remember that Zhizhen back in July of 2012 actually filed a case first against Apple as it felt Siri had infringed upon its patent for an instant messaging chat bot system called Xiaoi Bot.

Apple asked China's State Intellectual Property Office, which is in charge of patent rights protection in China, to invalidate Zhizhen's patent, but the request was declined. In turn, Apple is now suing both the patent office and Zhizhen...

Apple may call Android creator Andy Rubin to testify in Samsung case

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 18, 2014

Andy Rubin is one of the original creators of Android and Apple may summon him to testify in a new trial set for late-March as part of the ongoing Apple v. Samsung legal battle. According to a report by TUAW, a witness list Apple filed with the court last week has revealed the iPhone maker is considering calling Rubin to testify on the potentially sensitive topics of the development of infringing Android features. He may also be asked to comment on "Google documents relating to such development"...

Samsung and Apple bosses fail to resolve patent disputes in mediation talks

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 14, 2014

We told you in January that Samsung and Apple CEOs were scheduled to meet for a new round of peace talks ahead of a trial next month. According to multiple reports today, the meeting between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung mobile chief and co-CEO JK Shin indeed took place last week, but failed to yield tangible settlement opportunities.

As a result of the failed talks, the two frenemies are definitely going to slug it out in the courtroom all over again in a second California trial scheduled to kick off on March 31, 2014. Grab your popcorn...

Apple’s marketing head honcho Phil Schiller to appear on the witness stand again

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 13, 2014

Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, will take the witness stand again in the second Apple v. Samsung trial due in March, a pair of court filings PCMag spotted on Thursday have revealed.

Furthermore, Apple's former iOS boss Scott Forstall seems to be on Apple's and Samsung's lists for possible live testimony! Forstall hasn't spoken publicly since he got pushed out of the company on October 29, 2012 over the Apple Maps debacle...

DoJ reprimands Samsung over leveraging standards-essential patents for import ban

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 10, 2014

The Galaxy maker Samsung has been reprimanded by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) over its improper use of standards-essential patents in litigation. As Samsung leveraged standards-essential patents to seek an import ban against older Apple products into the United States, DoJ has decided to scold but not fine Samsung as a message of sorts to other companies that asserting these patents to hamper competition isn't acceptable. The full reveal is after the break...

Apple bands together with fellow tech titans to fight patent trolls of this world

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 5, 2014

Apple, along with Silicon Valley technology giants Google, Yahoo, Intel, Cisco and Facebook, is going after patent trolls - that is, companies whose only "products" are patents bought solely as a litigation weapon against others who actually use them in their own products.

Apple and others are now asking the United States Supreme Court to allow stiffer penalties for patent trolls who bring frivolous lawsuits, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Apple has a backlog of over 200 pending patent cases, most of them frivolous claims, and in every one of such lawsuits the company has been forced to bear its legal fees...

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...

In response to Facebook’s Paper, FiftyThree files trademark application for the term ‘Paper’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Facebook yesterday released its new Paper for iPhone app, a free download, prompting a swift response from Seattle- and New York-based FiftyThree which slammed the social networking behemoth for ignoring the fact that the Paper name has been associated with FiftyThree's own iPad drawing program, also a free download from the App Store.

The small startup said Facebook had ignored requests to change its app name even though FiftyThree filed for the ‘Paper by FiftyThree’ trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in May of 2012.

Not content with Zuck & Co. piggy-backing on the established Paper brand, FiftyThree has now moved to file a trademark for the term 'Paper' itself. Grab your popcorn...

University of Wisconsin takes Apple to court over A7’s performance-enhancing tricks

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 3, 2014

The University of Wisconsin via its patent-licensing arm, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, has filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging the company's in-house designed A7 chip infringes the foundation's patent designed to improve "the efficiency and performance of contemporary computer processors" by introducing a new process for allowing quicker execution of processor instructions.

It's been reported Monday that Apple's 64-bit A7 chip, which acts as the primary engine driving the iPhone 5s, the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina display, apparently uses this technology without permission...

Candy Crush Saga creator trademarks ‘candy’, goes after App Store devs

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Social games developer King, perhaps best-known for its wildly popular Candy Crush Saga match-three game (free in the App Store, currently #9 on the free apps chart), has filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking to trademark the word 'candy'.

And guess what? King won the trademark last week and is now asking fellow developers to remove games with 'candy' in their name. The full story is right after the break...

Judge approves anti-poaching agreement suit against Apple, Google and others

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

A few years ago, if you were a Silicon Valley engineer in high demand, landing a job at Apple, Google, Intel or other technology titans likely meant your career was stalling as a result of these companies conspiring to fix wages by not hiring each others’ employees. A probe by the Justice Department into these 'no solicitation' agreements led to a class-action lawsuit.

And after a federal appeals court refused to let the defendants appeal a class certification order, the affected Silicon Valley software and hardware engineers, programmers, animators, digital artists, web developers and other technical professionals have won clearance to pursue the collusion case as group, Reuters reported Wednesday...

Apple agrees to refund users in FTC settlement over unwanted in-app purchases

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 16, 2022

Parents whose kids were tricked into obtaining virtual items in iPhone and iPad games by way of the iOS In-App Purchase mechanism will get refunded over unwanted spending, according to Apple's settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The penalty dwarfs Google's $22.5 million fine in the Safari website tracking scandal.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was not pleased with the outcome, but acknowledged in a letter to employees that the company "has entered into a consent decree" over long-standing complaints over inappropriate charges in the App Store, alluding his company may have exhausted its legal options and didn't want to risk an enduring legal battle with the government...