Apple is reportedly going after several United States-based resellers and wireless carriers who have Samsung's Galaxy gadgets on offer, choosing to send takedown notices stemming from a recent sales ban rulings.
In a report over at his blog FOSS Patents, patent expert Florian Müeller notes that Apple's legal sharks contacted U.S. telcos and retailers, demanding they remove the banned Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet and Galaxy Nexus smartphone...
Standards-essential patents. You hear this magical phrase brought up quite often in high-stake technology lawsuits. Heck, it might even have been mainstreamed by an ongoing legal spat between Apple and Google over an alleged Android infringement.
It's no secret that industry watchers and the media have long insisted that the patent system is broken beyond repair and that it should be scrapped altogether. Leveraging patents deemed essential to an industry standard can damage an infringing party in tens of millions of dollars worth of fines.
Patent experts have long considered the system unreasonable and punishments too severe. And now, deciding enough is enough, the United States Congress is considering forbidding sales bans related to essential patents. If the proposal is accepted, technology giants like Apple and Samsung may no longer be allowed to request bans on infringing devices...
The iPhone-friendly carrier Sprint, the nation's third-largest telco, today filed amicus brief (a legal opinion) with the Federal Circuit concerning a sales injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone sought by Apple. Sprint is arguing that no party, Apple included, should be allowed to leverage a sales ban as "a staple of the smartphone wars".
The carrier paints itself as an "unwitting victim" of the large-scale Apple-Samsung legal wrangling, saying it just wants the issue to be fully resolved without an immediate ban...
Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet doesn't infringe on the iPad because it lacks the coolness factor of Apple's device, Judge Colin Birss wrote in a ruling today in London. Put simply, Samsung's Galaxy tablets "are not as cool", and this is the official explanation from court documents. Jony Ive won't like this...
The U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner is known for his witty remarks in the courtroom. As in, he tossed the Apple-Motorola suit out of the window and told parties that they have to prove injury, adding "I’m sorry that it seems to be petering out like this".
And in announcing the dismal, he proclaimed that “no more can Apple be permitted to force a trial in Federal Court the sole outcome of which would be an award of $1”.
He's back now with candid remarks regarding technology giants going after each other's throat in the courtroom. He also opined that companies like Apple are acting as if they were in "constant struggle for survival". And wait 'till you hear his take on the broken patent system...
A judge in London has ruled that HTC phones don't infringe upon Apple's prized smartphone patents, Bloomberg reported this morning. The ruling includes Apple's patented slide-to-unlock feature which famously drew the most 'oohs' and 'ahs' at the original iPhone introduction five years ago, but also other features such as flipping through a bunch of photos...
Wow, that was fast! Just a week following a complaint Apple lodged with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the original owner of the domain has transferred ownership to Apple's legal team, reports The Next Web.
It's interesting that the WIPO case was still filed as active at post time, meaning the organization hasn't even reached an official ruling, which could indicate that Apple's legal sharks scared the hell out of the domain owner. Who's this guy, anyway?
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Apple's emergency request to temporary detain all shipments of 29 different HTC devices at the U.S. border, including the EVO 4G LTE and the flagship One X smartphone, Bloomberg reports. Apple last week demanded an emergency import ban of HTC phones, arguing the Taiwanese vendor lied to Customs in order to free up shipments...
As if the fact that Samsung - Apple's main supplier of processors, displays and flash memory chips - has been struggling to fend off Apple's legal blows wasn't enough, a new report out today has it that the maker of Galaxy smartphones and tablets is joining forces with Google as both firms seek to pressure Apple into a cross-licensing deal, with Cupertino paying both Samsung and Google to settle ongoing patenting woes.
If anything, Google openly supporting Samsung in the courtroom suggests nervousness on the part of both technology giants, especially as the latter has recently suffered a pair of legal setbacks concerning devices running Androids software, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the thriving Android ecosystem...
South Korea-based Samsung today filed a motion today to appeal a preliminary injunction from the United States District Court Judge Lucy Koh from last Friday, concerning its Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
CNET reports that Samsung wrote in court documents that the order is "inconsistent" with directives regarding share losses...
Just two days after it won a devastating preliminary injunction on the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the United States, based on a ruling that Samsung infringed on the design and patents of Apple's iPad, Cupertino has posted the necessary $2.6 million bond, thus formalizing its blockage of U.S. imports of the infringing tablet...
It's virtually impossible to find a business that doesn't mine data on its users, be it your local grocery store or an online-only outlet which carries digital warez. And it doesn't matter whether you're a prospective buyer browsing a collection of books on Amazon or a repeat customer using your credit card to purchase intangibles.
One way or another, you're getting profiled. It's happening all the time and all around us, insofar as we don't even pay notice though we should. Even searching the web leaves valuable data in server logs that can and is being traced to your anonymized profile. What you're getting in return is a more personalized experience and certain businesses like social networks (Facebook, Google+ and so forth) literally depend on this idea.
Apple begs to differ. Suggesting the practice is getting out of hand, the company scored a huge patent win for techniques that could make data profiling more difficult and the iOS ecosystem a place devoid of aggressive advertising...