The patent war between Apple and Samsung has no end in sight. After Apple won a landmark victory against Samsung for patent infringement last summer to the tune of about $1 billion in damages, the court later deducted $450 million from what Samsung owes Apple. The California judge presiding over the case, Lucy Koh, said that the jury miscalculated what the damages should be for the 14 included Samsung devices.
All of the various charges and reexaminations being thrown around mean that Apple and Samsung will be heading to trial in the U.S. again not once, but twice in the coming year.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has officially ruled in favor of Apple against Google’s Motorola Mobility in a patent case that began in 2010. The last patent Motorola was using to sue Apple for infringement has been ruled invalid by the ITC.
Motorola sued Apple for allegedly violating six of its patents three years ago, and today’s patent was the last of six patents to be thrown out of court. If Motorola would have proven Apple’s infringement of this particular patent, the ITC could have possibly blocked sales of certain iPhone models.
Palm and its line of smartphones might be extinct, but its patents have managed to live on after the company’s death, and Apple’s ready to scoop some of them up.
Apple reached an agreement with Japan’s ACCESS Co., Ltd. to license $10 million worth of patents that were originally created by Palm and PalmSource. Other patents were included in the deal from Bell Communications and Geoworks as well.
Even though it’d probably be pretty cool, we’ve concluded that a touchscreen MacBook Air or iMac probably wouldn’t be fun to use for an extended period of time, thanks to gorilla arm syndrome.
But what if Apple made an iPad/MacBook Air hybrid? It turns out that Apple has been considering the idea of it for sometime, and based on its patent filings, the iPad/MacBook hybrid would look a lot like some of the PC options that are already on the market.
One of the curses of being an innovator is every time you innovate, someone comes along and says they had a patent on it first. Apple knows this dilemma well, and the latest patent infringement claim Cupertino has to defend itself against is in China over Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant.
A new Apple patent filing describes a future iPhone with one curious trick: it can twist itself in mid-air like a cat, not to land on its feet, but to smash into the ground in such a way that it’s least likely to get harmed.
A joint venture company between Philips and Sony called Intertrust, has decided to file a patent infringement suit against Apple, asserting that 15 of the company’s patents have been violated.
Intertrust’s patents cover a range of devices and services for digital restrictions management (DRM) to protect intellectual property.
Okay, this is interesting: Apple has published a patent for a Smart Cover with a battery inside, that would wirelessly charge an iPad when it was connected to it or used as a stand, and could also potentially wirelessly charge, say, an iPhone when rested on top of an iPad.
A new Apple patent application purchased by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office details a new system that may one day allow you to sell or lend on your “used” digital goods, such as iTunes purchases and software you’ve downloaded from the App Store.
Apple details a system that could see used goods sold through their original marketplaces, like those mentioned above, or directly between users.
Remember that one time that a U.K. judge told Apple that they have to publish a public apology to Samsung on their homepage? It was a really weird punishment that made a lot of us scratch our heads, but Apple handled it pretty well.
Well it turns out that that same U.K. judge who was pro-Samsung now has a really good reason for wanting Samsung to win against Apple – he just got a new job with Samsung!
