In the current wave of patent wars, Google has become an arms supplier, buying technology from other firms to increase Android’s ability to fight back against Apple. In its latest purchase in the Silicon Valley’s version of an arms bazaar, the Internet giant snapped up 1,023 IBM patents.
France is the latest stop in the magical mystery tour of European courtrooms for Apple and Samsung. Samsung is now the aggressor, filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, charging the iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4 and 3G iPad violate the South Korean company’s patents.
If its Friday, it must mean another headline-grabbing patent lawsuit against Apple. Wi-LAN, which has a penchant for patent dustups with high-profile tech companies, is suing Apple over Wi-Fi and other wireless transmission technology.
Attention patent shoppers: aisle one has a deal on digital imaging. Kodak is worth billions – not as a company, but for its patent portfolio. Indeed, just a portion of Kodak’s intellectual property is worth more than five times its stock value. Are you listening, Apple?
Android phone maker HTC has sued Apple, charging the tech giant’s devices infringe three patents. The move follows Apple’s own lawsuits against the Taiwanese manufacturer and as Google turns from partner to potential competitor.
Apple is mixed up in all kinds of patent issues. As a result, the company has been accused of unfairly trying to kill Google’s Android platform, and of being a “patent troll.”
But such criticism is misplaced. First, the accusations are false. Second, the real blame should be reserved for the US Congress, which has the power to fix our broken patent system, but year after year fails to do so.
Fresh from its purchase of the Nortel patent cache, Apple is in the hunt to purchase mobile technology owned by InterDigital. Cupertino “frenemies” Google and Samsung are also bidding, hoping Apple won’t lay claim to another piece of technology that Android is dependent upon.
Do you remember WebM? It was the video compression technology Google spontaneously announced early last year as an open, free alternative to the H.264 codec, used by Apple in every video shown on the iPhone, iPod and iPad.
Despite the fact that Google said that this was completely free, and H.264 is technically subject to a number of royalty fees, uptake on WebM has been pretty slow. Steve Jobs himself thought it was such a non-starter that all he did was link to a screed against WebM that argued that it was just a slight variation on the H.264 codec, and well covered by MPEG-LA’s patent pool… something that was likely to get Google sued.
Well, here comes the lawsuit.
Not all patent defenses against Apple are created equally, HTC has learned. A trade court told the Android handset maker its shiny bundle of $300 million S3 patents aren’t infringed by Apple’s iPhone or iPad, and just partially by Mac OS X.
Can we talk? That’s the message coming from executives at Android-handset maker to Apple. HTC’s finance chief wants to “sit down” with the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant flush from a patent win that could be costly for companies touting Google’s mobile operating system.