Items tagged with patents
On paper, South Korean smartphone maker Samsung has lost another patent infringement trial filed against it by Apple, this time to the tune of $119.6 million in damages. However, that amount is no where near the $2.2 billion Apple wanted Samsung to cough up, and it's substantially less than the $930 million (reduced...
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Two days after announcing plans to invest $1 billion in an ambitious cloud computing venture, Cisco Systems finds itself having to defend against a lawsuit alleging that some $43 billion in sales over the last five years infringe on patents. The company making the claim is Spherix, which describes itself as an...
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Securing patents is an important part of doing business in today's corporate world. Lenovo understands this, hence why it just agreed to purchase a portfolio of mobile technology patents from Unwired Planet for $100 million dollars in cash, the two companies announced. The deal also gives Lenovo a term-based license to Unwired Planet's patent...
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Apple, a company that's known for aggressively defending its patents (just ask Samsung, which seems to always be involved in patent litigation with the Cupertino outfit), may have bitten off more than it can chew when it designed its custom A7 system-on-chip (SoC). A newly filed lawsuit by the Wisconsin Alumni...
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It's a sue happy society we live in, that's just the way it is. Not only is that true of individuals, but it especially applies to businesses, hence why it's so important to own a robust patent portfolio. Without one, a company is at risk of litigation over patent infringement. It's with that in mind that Cisco and...
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Finally! That's an oft overused term in the technology space, but this time, we mean it. With patent wars thwarting innovation left and right over the past few years, it's a huge relief to see two major companies shaking hands and agreeing to move ahead and look beyond the legal aspects. Apple and Samsung probably...
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Sometimes it seems like Apple and Samsung spend as much time battling each other in court as they do in the labs innovating new features for mobile devices, features one company inevitably accuses the other of infringing upon. Is it possible for these two tech titans to simply get along and maybe even hammer out a...
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There's no denying that Android is absolutely crushing Microsoft's Window Phone platform in the mobile space, yet the better Android performs, the more Microsoft laughs all the way to the bank. That's because Microsoft makes big money off of Android patent royalties, and if you can fatten your pockets off the success...
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Google is apparently getting really serious about gesture control. In addition to acquiring Flutter, a San Francisco-based startup that develops gesture recognition technology, the sultan of search filed a patent application for using gestures in vehicles to perform a number of functions, such as changing the volume of music, raising or lowering...
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It's been said that prison changes a person, and it takes a foolhardy person to go messing around with an ex-convict. That's true even if that ex-convict is Martha Stewart. Perhaps especially if she's Martha Stewart. Behind that charismatic smile and underneath the persona that's obsessed with cooking and homemaking is a woman who became known...
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Apple has filed paperwork seeking a new trial against Samsung claiming patent violations on 14 products for which a U.S. judge saw fit to overturn a jury patent-infringement award earlier this month. It's the next logical step for Apple in what's been a long, drawn out legal process that initially saw the Cupertino company awarded $1.05 billion...
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Sony may have already lost the next generation console wars before stepping foot on the battlefield. That is, if it's granted a patent for a technology that would effectively eliminate the ability to play used games on the PlayStation 4, a move that would prove mighty unpopular among gamers and second-hand game shops...
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Apple may be looking to improve upon the stylus as we know it today. The Cupertino company filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) for what it calls an "Active Stylus," which can be used on capacitive touch sensor panels like those found on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch...
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Marvell on Thursday said it plans to appeal a jury verdict awarding Carnegie Mellon University $1.17 billion in damages for patent infringement claims brought against the company. At the center of the dispute are two patents -- U.S. Patent 6,201,839 and 6,438,180 -- that a federal jury found Marvell and its U.S. operating subsidiary, Marvell...
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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) took a second look at Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent and this time decided to invalidate it. It's a preliminary ruling and Apple will undoubtedly appeal, but for now, it serves as a temporary setback in Apple's quest to sue the mobile world, and in particularly Samsung. The ruling also opens the...
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You can find some interesting things when browsing through filings on the US Patent & Trademark Office's website. One such patent that has intrigued is an airbag for mobile devices, such as your smartphone or tablet (though it could also be applied to any handheld gadget, like a digital camera or media player)...
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You rarely hear politicians talk about patent reform, but perhaps it's high time the topic merits some discussion. The alternative is to leave the system alone and let businesses pay the price, even if they can't afford it. According to researchers at Boston University School of Law, the cost for businesses paying royalties to patent owners...
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There's no love lost between Google and Apple. Steve Jobs once vowed to destroy Android even if it meant bankrupting Apple, and given his competitive nature, there's every reason to believe he fully meant it. More recently, Apple raked one of Google's hardware partners (Samsung) over the coals by winning a $1 billion...
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And the patent wars continue. A judge in Wisconsin dismissed Apple’s case against Google’s Motorola Mobility wing. District Judge Barbara Crabb didn’t believe she had the legal authority to hear the case. At issue is whether or not Google has engaged in unfair licensing practices. The contention is that Google is using its...
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Wielding a smartphone makes you a walking target. That's especially true of iPhone owners, and unfortunately, smartphone mugging has become the new trend in criminal circles. In fact, it was previously reported that half of all robberies in San Francisco so far in 2012 have been cell phone related, many of which took...
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Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon, is fed up with the patent system as it's currently implemented, and he's calling for change. It's an important topic in the field of technology, as Samsung can attest after losing a high-profile legal battle to Apple, in which it was slapped with a billion dollar fine for essentially...
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Here’s your number of the day: $20 billion. That’s how much cash was crapped away on patent lawsuits and litigation over the last two years--just in the smartphone industry, according to the New York Times. Even more sad is that for the first time, Google and Apple spent more last year on patent lawsuits...
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