We still have to wait and see how the jury’s ruling against Samsung over Apple patents will play out for the company in terms of actual fines, injunctions — and crucially — future device design for the handset giant. But for now the markets have spoken. Share prices for Samsung Electronics fell by 7.5% yesterday, equating to a $12 billion loss in market value. However, it looks like this was a… → Read More
Here’s a timely story on how other companies not called Apple are also profiting from tech patents. Today AOL announced a share repurchase of $600 million in AOL stock, along with a one-time cash dividend of $5.15 per share, as the final steps in returning all of the proceeds from its $1.1 billion sale of patents to Microsoft.
The news was announced to the market, as well as to AOL staffers by… → Read More
Samsung Electronics has been knocked hard on mobile phone design innovation in the last few days, but in what might be a spectacular display of diversionary tactics, it is also doubling down on another significant part of its business — chipmaking. Today, the Dutch semiconductor machine maker ASML announced that Samsung would be investing close to $1 billion — yes, more or less the same amount… → Read More
A recent TechCrunch guest post by Jeffrey Shieh suggests that startups should file for international patent protection for a variety of reasons. Mr. Shieh does a great job of explaining the benefits and options for seeking international patent protection. However, based on my experience working with startups, I disagree with his conclusion that startups should expend precious early funds on… → Read More
When I think of APIs, I tend to think of mostly end-user data being passed back and forth between consumer websites and various client apps. Automated uploading to Flickr, for example, or consuming Twitter data in some way. I don’t think of chemical patent searches. SureChem just announced an API for just that function, though, which goes to show that automation and ubiquitous computing is… → Read More
Following in the footsteps of Apple getting ready to launch its QR Code-based Passbook service, it looks like Microsoft is also giving some attention to QR Codes, the mobile barcodes that, when scanned, trigger actions like visiting websites or opening other content: NeoMedia, one of the early movers in this field, announced that Redmond has signed a worldwide licensing deal for all 74 of… → Read More
After the two sides give their closing arguments in the Apple versus Samsung trial tomorrow, the jury goes into deliberations. The nine person group will be given a shockingly complex worksheet, from which a verdict will be produced. The WSJ is reporting that the worksheet includes obtuse questions like, “What is the dollar amount that Samsung is entitled to receive from Apple for Samsung’s… → Read More
Google’s Motorola Mobility filed a new lawsuit against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, seeking to ban the imports of virtually every Apple product into the U.S. At the time, the details of the filing weren’t public yet, but the ITC has now posted the full complaint online and we can finally get a better idea of what patents Apple allegedly violated. → Read More
According to Bloomberg, Google’s Motorola unit just filed a new patent-infringement lawsuit against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington. According to this report, Google’s complaint seeks to block Apple from importing the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and “various Apple computers.” Today’s lawsuit is only the latest in a long series of recent disputes between Apple… → Read More
The neverending patent wars keep on raging, and Spotify is the latest to get targeted in the social media skirmishes. The music streaming company is getting sued by Nonend Inventions, a Dutch company, which claims Spotify is infringing on five of its U.S. patents covering streaming media, peer-to-peer search, and retrieval and playback techniques. Nonend says altogether it holds more than 40… → Read More
One of the main surprises of Google’s Fiber announcement in Kansas City last week was that the company also plans to provide its own TV service to the residents of its ‘fiberhoods.’ There are some issues with Google’s Fiber TV service, including the fact that it seems to be missing quite a bit of content, but it’s definitely looking to be a very competitive offering. To make all of this work… → Read More
Groupon is gearing up to report quarterly earnings later this month, but in the meantime the daily deals giant has another issue on its hands: it’s been hit with a patent infringement lawsuit by Blue Calypso, a digital marketing firm that claims Groupon is infringing two of its patents, 7,664,516 and 8,155,679, focused on peer-to-peer marketing technology. What’s more, from the sounds of it, Blue… → Read More
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… → 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. → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → Read More
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… → 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 … → 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… → 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… → 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”… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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 … → Read More
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