Tag archive: patent

As reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier today, Eastman Kodak may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if company officials aren't successful in selling off 1,100 patents over the next few weeks. While the company would continue to operate during the bankruptcy procedure, Kodak would be forced to sell the patents during a court-supervised bankruptcy auction and wouldn't get the full value for the patents. The… Read More

An old patent recently awarded to Microsoft may shed some light on the company's future ambitions regarding the Xbox. The patent sums up an idea for a gaming console moving towards an entertainment center, rather than simply a gaming machine. Back in January 2007, around the time when the Playstation 3 first came out, Microsoft was toying with an idea for a gaming console to pack a digital video recorder (DVR). The DVR application “running… Read More

Good news for the Donald LeBuhns of the world, newly uncovered patents filed by Apple show the company has been thinking about upping durability for portables. Future iOS devices may even be getting little airbags installed to prevent your precious mobile electronics from shattering on the first drop. The patent was apparently filed in 2010′s Q2, and dug up by Pattently Apple who says that one of the patent inventors, Stephen Lynch, worked… Read More

The US Patent and Trademark office published this week a patent for an Apple product that looks nearly identical to the clip-on iPod Shuffle, and which contains a built-in loudspeaker. Based on the text in the patent application, it's not clear whether this device — which may never see the light of day, we should add — will be a new type of iPod, or simply an accessory device, which can be plugged into an iPod, iPhone or iPad, enabling… Read More

It appears that it's been a rather bad week for Apple in the European courts. A report on Friday said that Apple had lost a patent infringement battle with Motorola Mobility in Germany –  this in the same week that a Spanish court also ruled against the Cupertino-based company.  Florian Mueller wrote in a post on the FOSS Patents blog on Friday that the Mannheim Regional Court had granted Motorola Mobility an injunction against… Read More

Samsung has no doubt had better weeks. A day after being told by an Australian court that it was prohibited from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablet in the country, a court in the US ruled on Thursday that the Korean company’s Galaxy tablets infringe Apple’s patents. However, it wasn’t all bad news – US district judge Lucy Koh stopped short of slapping a ban on sales of Samsung’s tablets in the US. Reuters reported that for Apple to have any… Read More

Samsung was told by Australia's Federal Court on Thursday that it will not be allowed to sell its Galaxy 10.1 tablet in the Australian market – at least for the time being. The decision comes following an accusation by Apple that Samsung’s tablet infringed several of its patents and “slavishly” copied various aspects of the iPad’s design. The two technology giants have been filing various patent lawsuits against one another in nine… Read More

According to The Korea Times, Samsung plans to fan the flames of its ongoing patent battles with Apple by suing the company over the iPhone 5 at launch. Insiders have reportedly revealed Samsung will attempt to block sales of the highly-anticipated phone in Korea as a form of retaliation. “Just after the arrival of the iPhone 5 here [South Korea], Samsung plans to take Apple to court here for its violation of Samsung’s wireless technology… Read More

A judge in Australia has said that if Apple wants to achieve a ban on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country, then it should reveal regional sales figures for its iPad and iPad 2. Apple doesn’t like revealing sales figures, so it’ll be interesting to see how the company weighs up the pros and cons of doing so. In other words, how keen is it to see off Samsung’s tablet in Australia? The judge’s comments came as the Cupertino company… Read More

There's another wrinkle in the Samsung v. Apple battle that's already provided us with a whole lot of entertaining controversy. There's discussion afoot that Apple's big legal victory – getting Galaxy phones banned through the European Union for copyright infringement – may be as toothless as a twenty-year-old cat. Apple's copyright lawsuit concerned a whole mess of things, namely physical design… Read More

Last week Google acquired Motorola in order to “protect” its Android ecosystem, as well as to contribute to its hardware future. Google has been the victim of more than a few lawsuits involving patent litigation, and while buying Motorola’s many assets can be a benefit for the company’s mobile business in a variety of ways, it mostly means it will have more intellectual property in its arsenal to fight its court battles. Of course Motorola’s got… Read More

The smartphone has basically become an extension of ourselves–which is why it’s so devastating when little more than a two foot fall can destroy it. And now you can thank Jeff Bezos for keeping your precious device that much safer: The Amazon CEO, along with the company’s VP Greg Heart, has filed a patent to outfit smartphones and other handheld electronics with airbags. Geekwire first noticed the document, which explains that one out of… Read More

A German court has barred Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 device in all European countries except the Netherlands. A separate lawsuit is underway there. A Reuters report said that a district court in Dusseldorf granted the preliminary injunction on Tuesday. The ruling, which agrees with Apple’s claim that Samsung has replicated elements of the iPad’s design, will come as a bitter blow to the Korean company. It comes just over a week… Read More

Hulu gets more bad news this week. The online television service is being sued by Rovi Corp for alleged patent infringement. Rovi claims that Hulu has infringed on three patents related to program guides and search; they are looking to be compensated for their lost revenue. The complaint, Rovi Corp. V. Hulu LLC, was filed via federal court in Wilmington, Delaware yesterday. Rovi is specifically suing in regards to US patent number(s) 6,396,546;… Read More

Spotify has been available for a measly two weeks and it’s already getting its first taste of patent litigation. PacketVideo says that Spotify is infringing on its claims over streaming music. The San Diego-based company that launched more than 10 years ago and was one of the first to enable streaming video on mobile platforms. While once one of the leaders of streaming, PacketVideo only has the right to file such litigation because it bought… Read More