Just over a week ago, the jury began deliberations on the ongoing patent infringement case between Google and Oracle. After waiting in the wings, with bated breath, the verdict is finally in, as Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court of Northern California dismissed the jury this afternoon after a unanimous decision that ruled in favor of Google’s mobile OS — declaring that Android did not in fact infringe on the Oracle patents in question.
The decision follows an opposing verdict earlier this month, in which the jury in the long-running infringement case found that certain components of Android APIs had too close of a resemblance to code used in Oracle’s Java programming tools. However, the jury ended up splitting on the notion of whether or not Google could in fact claim fair use in its defense (which could have then led to a mistrial.) → Read More
One idea floated when Ross Levinsohn took the reins as the interim CEO of Yahoo is that he might represent a kinder, gentler phase in the Internet company’s contentious patent fight against Facebook. There was even a suggestion that the two sides might even be able to settle.
Today, some news that could point to a different approach — at least for now. Some documents have emerged at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that indicate someone, just yesterday, requested for the USPTO to re-examine a patent owned by Facebook concerning news feeds, and to declare it invalid. This happens to be one of the same functions that Facebook has named in its counter-suit against Yahoo, and one patent expert believes that the re-examination request, which questions the validity of the patent, could be coming from Yahoo. → Read More
Nathan Myhrvold, erstwhile Microsoft CTO and now patent powerbroker extraordinare, has hit the news this weekend, but it’s not for his latest licensing deal with a mobile phone maker, or for a lawsuit against a tech company (or three) that refuses to pay up for patents that his company, Intellectual Ventures, owns — but for a different kettle of fish altogether.
Myhrvold has won the James Beard Foundation book award for cookbook of the year — the top prize in one of the industry’s most prestigious accolades — for a book that deep-dives, appropriately enough, into the science and technology of cooking.
His book, the self-published Modernist Cuisine, is a six-volume, 2,438-page effort that he co-wrote with Chris Young and Maxime Bilet (and a 20-person team of cooks), which is selling for $625 (or $455.11 on Amazon). → Read More
Google has always been pretty cagey about the financials behind its Android mobile OS — and data that has emerged over the last week could give us an indication why: it’s been losing money from day one.
In the lawsuit between Oracle and Google — in which Oracle claims Google, in its Android platform, infringes on copyrights and patents related to Java — a judge and jury are trying to work out what kind of damages might be awarded to Oracle. That case took a turn for the specific yesterday, when Judge William Alsup (as reported by Reuters) read out excerpts of Google documents that determined that the platform produced a net loss for every quarter of 2010 — and “a big loss for the whole year”.
→ Read More
Barnes & Noble has found a new, major partner in its fight to get an edge over Amazon and Apple in the market for e-books and the devices being used to consume them: it is teaming up with Microsoft in what the two are calling a strategic partnership, name yet to be determined.
It will come in the form of a new subsidiary of B&N that will include all of its Nook business as well as its educational College business. Microsoft is making a $300 million investment in the subsidiary, valuing the company at $1.7 billion in exchange for around 17.6 percent equity in the subsidiary.
The news leaves the door open for B&N to eventually spin these off into a separate business altogether — or even sell them to Microsoft. And it leaves a load of questions about what B&N will do next with the Nook, which is currently built on a forked version of Google’s Android platform. → Read More
Twitter is an innovative company, and today’s introduction of the Innovator’s Patent Agreement shows that their legal department can be innovative too. The Innovator’s Patent Agreement, a draft of which was released on GitHub, will allow inventors to retain control of their inventions to make sure that they are only used for defensive purposes. This new agreement is a clear PR and recruiting win for Twitter, but whether it will be anything more is debatable.
At first glance, the Innovator’s Patent Agreement is a huge derivation from the standard assignment model, where an employee assigns all of their rights in an idea to their employer. In today’s climate, where many developers openly dislike the patent system, this new agreement may be a game changer. Recently, a Yahoo developer openly lamented the use of his technology in Yahoo’s lawsuit against Facebook. The Innovator’s Patent Agreement appears to be Twitter’s direct response to that mindset. Thus, the most likely initial result will be the use of this agreement as a recruitment tool. Indeed, in Twitter’s blog post Twitter asks interested developers to #Jointheflock.
It looks like Twitter is taking a fresh approach to the huge, expensive mess that is the U.S. patent system, as outlined in a just-published blog post. The post summarizes something that Twitter is calling the Innovator’s Patent Agreement, which would commit the company to only use employee-invented patents defensively — any offensive litigation could only happen through the approval of the inventor.
In other words, Twitter is saying that it only wants to hold patents to make sure it doesn’t get sued by other patent holders — it won’t sue other companies without employee approval. Twitter says that even if it sold its patents, that inventor approval restriction would still apply. → Read More
Mobile messaging, in its traditional sense, is on the decline, and the patent world is hot, hot, hot, and today one company that plays in both areas showed where it sees its stronger ties at the moment. Openwave, which calls itself the “inventor of the mobile internet” for the early role it played in developing mobile data technology, today announced it was selling its core software business — messaging and mediation operations — and will instead concentrate on its patent holdings in smart devices, cloud technology and unified messaging.
Marlin Equity Partners is buying the two businesses for an undisclosed sum, and says it will continue to operate and invest in the businesses, which will be called Openwave Messaging and Openwave Mobility. That transaction is expected to close this month.
Openwave, meanwhile, will rebrand as Unwired Planet, “a name that recalls the company’s rich heritage of innovation,” it said. It will focus on intellectual property — specifically in the form of 200 issued U.S. and foreign patents and 75 further patent applications, “many of which are considered foundational to mobile communications.” → Read More
As large companies increasingly look to protect their revenue streams through IP risk mitigation, startups with strong patent holdings will become increasingly valuable because they provide an opportunity to remove dual potential threats to the potential acquirer’s revenue stream — as a competitor and as a patent threat. Startups that are able to position themselves as part of an acquirer’s IP risk mitigation strategy make themselves more attractive targets for acquisition.
For example, Twitter acquired Tweetie days after Tweetie filed for a patent application on the pull down to refresh feature and Google recently acquired Apture and Katango, two small startups with multiple pending patent applications relevant to Google’s businesses. Although some have described these deals as talent acquisitions, the value presented by the associated IP to the acquirer should not be ignored. → Read More
Another development in the ongoing fight between Apple and Motorola over patent infringements in Germany: a court has decided against Apple Inc. in a case involving push email service on iCloud and MobileMe services in the country. This is effectively an extension of the same ruling that was originally handed down in February against Apple International, a case that Apple is appealing.
A judge in a regional court in Mannheim, where the case was heard, has ordered Apple Inc. to pay damages, according to the Wall Street Journal. The exact value has not been specified.
Apple tells us it is appealing this case, based on the same points as the earlier one. In that case, Apple is appealing because it believes the patent in question — a patent (the ’654) that Motorola originally received in the 1990s around pager technology — is invalid. A spokesperson at the time of that earlier ruling dismissed it to me as an “old pager patent.” Since this case concerns the exact same patent, it is likely that Apple will also appeal in this newest case. → Read More
This just in: one chapter of AOL’s patent journey is coming to an end. The company is selling 800 patents to Microsoft for just north of $1 billion: $1.056 billion in cash to be exact.
Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL (which owns TechCrunch), says that the company will continue to hold on to about 300 patents and patent applications after the sale. These span “core and strategic technologies” around advertising, search and content generation, he noted in a memo to employees. [Full memo below the break.] → Read More
Here we go again: today brings another mobile patent infringement suit — this time against T-Mobile USA, and over a technology that has had very little use to date, but a lot of potential.
On Track Innovations says that the carrier is selling, “or offering to sell”, “at least” two handset models — the HTC Amaze 4G and the Nokia Astound — that it claims violate a near-field communications patent, owned by OTI. NFC is the technology that is the centerpiece for a number of contactless mobile payments services and data sharing other applications.
The case was filed today in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, OTI says. → Read More
Facebook, according to reports, is buying up a boatload of patents from IBM — 750 in all — that will help the company shore up against potential attacks from other companies claiming the huge social network infringes on their intellectual property.
But for the past couple of years, Facebook has already been taking steps to build up its patent portfolio through the acquisition of patents from a host of other players, from large IT companies, to a patent troll and a defunct social network. And a few surprises. → Read More
Microsoft is dropping its patent lawsuit against set-top box maker TiVo, in which Microsoft had complained of not only copyright infringement, but had also threatened a ban on importing TiVo’s hardware and software into the U.S. And TiVo has agreed to drop its suits against Microsoft, as well.
→ Read More
For those who may have thought that last week’s patent lawsuit filed by Yahoo against Facebook was a one-off, here are some developments that indicate that we may be seeing more of this to come:
Facebook has now been sued by Mitel, an Ottawa, Canada-based enterprise IT company; and there is emerging evidence of others, including AOL, filing fresh patent applications to cover ever more aspects of social media services. → Read More
The lawsuit filed on Monday by Yahoo against Facebook over alleged infringements of certain “method” patents was a high profile step for Yahoo to take in the lead-up to Facebook’s IPO.
But although Facebook has seen patent suits against it double in the last year, don’t necessarily take this as a sign that Yahoo will necessarily extend its fight to more jurisdictions, nor that social media will be come the next battleground, after mobile, in patent wars, says one senior patent lawyer in London. → Read More
After forming a strange alliance to score control of Nortel Networks’ patents, Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Sony, and Ericsson can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Now that a Department of Justice waiting period has finally expired, the members of the so-called Rockstar Consortium can finally finish up their $4.5 billion acquisition of the one-time telecom giant’s hefty patent portfolio.
→ Read More
While I find most reality TV abhorrent, last week’s Shark Tank brought a very interesting concept to the usual babble that is the modern “boss” show. In this episode, Scott Jordan, creator of ScottEVest, appeared in front of a motley crew of entrepreneurs including Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary to pitch his patent licensing business, Technology Enabled Clothing or TEC. You can watch the episode here if you’re a masochist.
I’m not about to defend any of the people on here except to say that they are successful in their own right and most of them are blowhards. Blowhards can and are often successful and interesting, but often not on their own terms (see also) and often to the detriment of their souls. But darned if they don’t make for some good TV. → Read More
Just hours before Apple is due to unveil what many think will be a new version of its best-selling iPad tablet, Samsung has tried to steal a little thunder by filing a lawsuit against the Cupertino company over patent violations in the newest models that Apple has on the market as of this morning, the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2. The suit was filed in Samsung’s home market of Korea.
Given how these patent suits have come to represent almost as much in public mindshare as they have in terms of actual licensing deals (and, more loftily, questions of originality in device design), this could be seen as a well-timed and key move by Samsung. But it also appears to be a reversal of strategy… → Read More
When news broke this week that Yahoo is accusing Facebook of violating as many as 20 of its patents, it took some people by surprise — but at least one patent expert saw it all coming from a mile away. Erin-Michael Gill first publicly predicted a Yahoo/Facebook patent battle back in November 2011, so TechCrunch TV reached out to Gill to get his insights on the situation, now that things have finally started to come to a head. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
