Rumors had suggested that Samsung would add Apple’s iPhone 5 to the list of devices involved in a patent infringement suit between the two companies, and it looks like that’s going to happen. The Korean company has confirmed that it expects the latest iPhone to infringe the same patents the iPhone 4S does, and that it will be adding the handset to its case after it has had time to “analyze” it.
Add another mark in the “winning” column for Apple today, as a judge from the US branch of the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that Apple did not infringe any of the four patents brought before the commission by Samsung.
Judge James Gildea posted his ruling in a short notice on the court’s website. He also found that Samsung was unable to prove that it had a “domestic industry” that used the patents in question. This last bit has to do with a requirement of the ITC that the patents being brought before the court must actually be used in the same country as that court. This ruling is preliminary; the full ITC panel will review the ruling early next year.
Apple’s victory in the courtroom over Samsung last month was met with cheers from Apple fans across the world, but one of the biggest Apple fans ever absolutely hated the ruling. In an interview with Bloomberg today, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discussed Apple’s $1 billion legal victory and said that he doesn’t agree with it.
Do you remember the GooPhone i5? It sounded like something you’d buy at a joke shop that would spurt some odious fluid down the inner cochlea of an unsuspecting victim who held it up to his ear, but it was actually a wonderfully brazen knock-off of the upcoming sixth-generation iPhone.
And hilariously, this pre-emptive copycat is already threatening to sue Apple over the iPhone 5, claiming to have patented the design.
Steve Jobs famously declared a thermonuclear war on Google’s alleged iPhone copycat Android OS, but the full-on battle between the companies may be prevented before more of their lawyers have broken out of the trenches. A Reuters report this morning revealed Google’s Larry Page and Apple’s Tim Cook are planning on conducting preliminary talks regarding the companies’ IP disputes, a series of talks which may lead to a truce deal in the upcoming months.
A California court recently ruled in favor of Apple in a high-profile patent case against Samsung, and the immediate fallout means that Samsung is forced to pay Apple over $1 billion in damages. Federal Judge Lucy Koh will hold an injunction hearing in December to see if Apple is permitted to ban several Samsung phones from being sold in the United States.
The court’s decision was by no means a simple one, as this Apple vs. Samsung case is considered the most important tech patent lawsuit in history. That’s why every bit of the ruling process is being put under the microscope, including Jury Foreman Vel Hogan, the man who led the jury to rule against Samsung last Friday.
A new report reveals that a possible conflict of interest could have affected the case’s ruling.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a Seoul court ruled that Apple has infringed on two of Samsung’s patents. In addition, Apple must stop selling the infringing products in South Korea. Apple isn’t the only one at fault here, as the court also ruled that Samsung had infringed upon Apple’s “bounceback” patent. According to the WSJ’s Evan Ramstad:
Looks like a split decision overall in South Korea court, but Samsung faring better than Apple with judges.
In addition, Reuters reports that Apple has been given a small fine of roughly $35,400.
Today, Bloomberg reports that Google’s Motorola Mobility unit has filed a new case against Apple with the International Trade Commission (ITC). In the claim, Google asserts that seven of Motorola’s patents have been infringed by the Cupertino-based company.
The patents Google is claiming in the case include location-based reminders, email notification, and video players, oddly enough. The suit itself seeks a ban on US imports of devices like the iPhone and iPad as well as Mac computers, all of which are manufactured out of the US, in China.
So Apple and Google were once friends. Then they were frenemies. Now they’re just straight up, cold-hearted enemies who would kill a cute little baby platypus if it meant the other company would suffer. Can’t they just get along and get over their “thermonuclear” squabbles? Maybe. For a minute.
Kodak’s auction of intellectual property has kind of brought the two companies onto the same team. They both want Kodak’s digital imaging patents, but rather paying for them all by itself, Apple is part of a consortium of bidders that want to nab the Kodak patents for super cheap. Even stranger, Google isn’t the only Apple rival in the group.
Apple has been named in a California lawsuit filed by EPL Holdings for allegedly infringing a patent that covers audio and video playback at varying speeds. The filing reports that EPL met with Apple back 2002 to discuss licensing over the patents it had developed. But the Cupertino company is alleged to have used the technology anyway without reaching a licensing deal.
