That $7.8b Apple-Samsung Deal isn’t as big as you might think - The Digital Reader

That $7.8b Apple-Samsung Deal isn’t as big as you might think - The Digital Reader:

The hot story today is about the deal that Samsung and Apple are about to sign. Over the next year, Samsung will provide $7.8 billion worth of components for the iPad and iPhone. this deal would make Apple the single largest customer of Samsung.

Novell patent pool filing by Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, EMC withdrawn

Novell patent pool filing by Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, EMC withdrawn:

A plan created by Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, and EMC to create a consortium to acquire hundreds of Novell patents has been withdrawn after complaints from open source advocates, leaving the fate of the nearly half billion dollars' worth of patents uncertain.

Supreme Court to hear Microsoft patent-infringement appeal - News - Windows for Devices

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Microsoft's appeal in its long-running patent case with Canadian firm i4i. This not only gives Microsoft another shot at overturning a substantial monetary judgment, but also gives the Court a chance to leave its mark on the patent-infringement battles gripping the tech industry.

HTC Shores Up In Legal Fights With 30K-Patent Deal

HTC Shores Up In Legal Fights With 30K-Patent Deal:

In one swift move, HTC may have just diffused what could have become yet another legal bomb: the handset maker yesterday entered into a long-term licensing agreement and strategic alliance with Intellectual Ventures, an IP patent house run by Microsoft’s former CTO, Nathan Myhrvold, and chief architect, Edward Jung. The deal gives HTC access to over 30,000 patents.

The agreement gives HTC the IP it needs to “defend itself and its subsidiaries from potential litigation,” says the joint press release. A value for the deal was not disclosed.

Is software too abstract to be patented? | opensource.com

Is software too abstract to be patented? | opensource.com:

"The serious problem of proliferating bad software patents was not solved by the Supreme Court's Bilski decision, but now it's looking like it may be part of the solution. The early case law applying Bilski is much more encouraging than expected. The new Bilski test focuses on whether an application attempts to patent “an abstract idea.” That new test has already been applied to reject applications for quite a few bad software patents, and with more lawsuits, it could invalidate a lot more. To advance on this, we need to figure out out better ways to explain what software is and show when it is an unpatentable abstract idea."

Microsoft Sues Motorola Over Patent Fees on Xbox - Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp., the biggest software maker, accused Motorola Inc. of breaching contractual obligations to fairly license patents on wireless networking and video coding to be used in the Xbox gaming system.

Motorola is violating a pledge to license on reasonable terms patents that are deemed essential to industry technology standards, Microsoft said in a lawsuit filed today in federal court in Seattle. Royalty demands made by Motorola are out of line with the terms of the industry standard-setting body in which the companies are participants, Microsoft said.

Patent battles by tech giants a fuzzy midpoint in phoney war - The Irish Times - Fri, Oct 08, 2010

MOTOROLA THIS week began proceedings against Apple for what it claimed were violations of its patents. The patents – Motorola claimed these include innovations in 3G and Wi-Fi antenna design, wireless e-mail, proximity sensing and software application management – all revolve around Apple’s iPhone, which just happens to be a major competitor.

If you haven’t heard about this lawsuit, it may be because it’s one of approximately a bazillion patent battles in the mobile field.

On Tuesday, Microsoft sued Motorola over its Android smartphones, including e-mail, contacts and calendar synchronisation. In March, Apple sued HTC, another maker of Android phones. The creator of Android itself, Google, was sued by Oracle for patent violations in August. Nokia is suing Apple, Qualcomm, the LG Group, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, Toshiba, Hitachi and Motorola.

Motorola sues Apple for patent infringement

Motorola, just days after being targeted in a patent suit by Microsoft, filed complaints against Apple on Wednesday alleging that the iPhone, iPad and other products infringe its patents.

The Motorola complaints allege that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and certain Macintosh computers infringe 18 patents 'which relate to early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key technology areas.'

Motorola files patent lawsuits against Apple

Motorola has filed two patent lawsuits and a patent complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that a wide range of Apple products infringe its patents.

The three complaints cover 18 Motorola patents, including communication technologies related to W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), general packet radio service (GPRS), 802.11 and antenna design, as well as smartphone technologies related to wireless e-mail, proximity sensing, application management and location-based services, Motorola said in a press release.

Microsoft, Motorola Lawsuit: A Settlement Waiting to Happen

Every time I turn around, someone's suing Android directly or by proxy--the latest being Microsoft's patent-infringement lawsuit against Motorola launched this past Friday. In the suit, Microsoft alleges that nine of its patents were violated.

This is the third time software makers have gone after Android or Android-based phones this year. In March, HTC found themselves in Apple's cross hairs as another proxy against Google's Android, with another patent lawsuit. This summer, Oracle went straight at Google, claiming its Java code was being improperly used in Android.