#Cisco and #Twitter join #Linux patent protection pool | ZDNet

In case you’ve been under a rock for the last decade, you might not know that today’s technology wars aren’t over who has the best prices, the most features, or the greatest quality. No, in 2011, instead of working on innovating, tech. giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle, are now wasting their resources on intellectual property (IP) lawsuits. So, perhaps it should come as no surprise that networking powerhouse Cisco and social networking force Twitter, is joining the Linux patent protection group, the Open Invention Network (OIN).

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/cisco-and-twitter-join-linux-patent-protection-pool/9372

#Sony, #LG Electronics settle bitter patent dispute | Reuters

LG Electronics and Sony said on Thursday that they have resolved patent disputes between the two firms spanning smartphones, TVs and Blu-ray technology, with LG adding that they have signed a cross-licensing deal.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-sony-lg-idUSTRE77A0AF20110811

Must watch talk between Tim Lee and Julian Sanchez

Preliminary injunction granted by #German court: #Apple blocks #Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the entire EU except for the Netherlands

The leading German news agency, dpa, just reported that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction against Samsung's #Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1, barring distribution of the product in the entire European Union except for the Netherlands. I presume that Apple has a separate lawsuit underway in the Netherlands as well.

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/preliminary-injunction-granted-by.html 

The fate of #mobile phone brands

The violence with which new platforms have displaced incumbent mobile vendor fortunes continues to surprise.

• Nokia’s Symbian platform has gone from 47% share to 16% in three years 

• Microsoft’s phone platforms have gone from 12% to 1% 

• Other platforms have gone from 21% to zero 

• Although far less dramatic, RIM’s decline from 17% to 12% is causing acute pain and anxiety 

This while entrants have grown share in spectacular fashion:

• Android from zero to 48% (A two year period) 

• iOS from 2% to 19% 

• Bada from zero to 4% (two quarters only)

http://www.asymco.com/2011/08/08/the-fate-of-mobile-phone-brands/ 

#InterDigital Inc., filed infringement claims with a U.S. trade panel last month to boost the price of its intellectual property portfolio

InterDigital Inc., owner of about 1,300 U.S. #mobile -phone #patents, filed infringement claims with a U.S. trade panel last month to boost the price of its intellectual property portfolio, Huawei Technologies Co. said. 

The King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company "may be using the commission's investigation process purely for the purpose of inflating its value as it prepares to sell its IP assets," Huawei said in an Aug. 5 letter to the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington.

InterDigital said July 19 it was considering a sale of its patent portfolio. The company filed a complaint with the ITC on July 26 that accused Huawei, Nokia Oyj and ZTE Corp. of infringing seven patents related to so-called third-generation wireless technology.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/09/bloomberg1376-LPMNCP07SXKX01-4L9J3TU8MGNTB4CFIP85KE3985.DTL#ixzz1UY3jFEb3

Patent trolls and property-rights goblins: What Harry Potter can teach us about patents and property rights

But in all the discussion of "patent trolls", I haven't come across the accusation of stolen patents (or murder). The inventor and the “troll” mutually entered an agreement to transfer ownership. Transfer of property rights happens all the time. Someone may construct a shop, and then sell it to someone else, who then charges rent to a tennant. Such transfers of exclusive access to property are common. No one calls the new owner a “property troll” because they neither built nor occupy the shop. The new owner is simply an intermediary who is good at managing property, just as the original builder is good at financing and managing construction, and just as the tenants are good at running a shop. I'd guess that in Australia and America, this accounts for the vast majority of commercial property.

http://www.tim-richardson.net/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=186:patent-trolls-and-property-rights-goblins-what-harry-potter-can-teach-us-about-patents-and-property-rights&catid=83:profoverview&Itemid=54 

Problem #Patent Trolls Inspire New #Legislation

The increase in patent litigation has moved #Congress to consider legislation to stem the practices of "patent trolls:" individuals and companies that use patents to license revenue from other companies or to file-patent infringement lawsuits -- rather than to build and sell products using the patented inventions. Several other changes to U.S. patent law are also under consideration.

Patent trolls' aims are not to further innovation in products or services. Instead, they hold a patent, much like a stock investment, until it can be licensed to another company that is developing a similar product using the patented technology. Or, if a competing product actually comes to market, patent trolls file infringement lawsuits in the hopes of cashing in on their patent investment. 

Patent trolls have been an especially difficult problem for companies to manage. They are reminiscent of cyber-squatters who bought up Internet domain names during the dot-com boom, and, because of patent trolls' behavior, patent-infringement legislation is growing at an incredible pace. In the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (where many of patent-infringement lawsuits are initiated), filings in 2010 increased by 20 percent compared to 2009.

http://uspolitics.einnews.com/247pr/228082 

The Spoilsmen: How #Congress Corrupted #Patent Reform

When legislators first introduced a patent bill in 2005, they designed it to lower the costs of lawsuits burdening Internet and software companies. Lured by the big, juicy settlements to be won by suing huge companies for intellectual property theft, an entire industry had emerged around patent chasing alone. These so-called "patent trolls" don't produce any goods. Instead, they secure unclaimed patents for ideas in use and try to cash out in court.

Trolls file hundreds of lawsuits a year over "low quality" patents -- lobbyist legal jargon for the questionable or downright bizarre patents routinely granted by the understaffed Patent and Trademark Office. In recent years, patents have been approved for products including a wheeled flower pot (patent No. 7,908,942), the crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwich (patent No. 6,004,596), a decorative box that can be placed in a casket (No. 7,908,942) and an accounting scheme that helps people dodge taxes by moving stock options around (No. 6,567,790). Once approved by the patent office, it's difficult and costly to overturn the patent in courts, which grant significant deference to the office's decisions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/patent-reform-congress_n_906278.html?view=print 

Politicians and Pundits Make Some Noise About Patent Reform

Politicians and Pundits Make Some Noise About Patent Reform:

"According to an article in The Hill that ran on August 2, soon after both houses of Congress had passed debt ceiling legislation, 'Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said Tuesday that the first jobs bill to move after the recess will be the patent reform legislation.' The bill is one of many expected to come before Congress under the mantle of job creation: 'Reid and bill sponsor Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said the bill, which speeds patent applications, is expected to create 200,000 jobs.'"