Displaying items by tag: Patent

THX has a patent titled "Narrow profile speaker configurations and systems", which they received in the 2008. Now they have concluded that in Apple's iPhone, iMac and iPad they used solution provided by this patent without permission, so, logically, have launched a lawsuit against Apple, because Apple inflicted damage with that move. The lawsuits seek monetary damages or payment of licenses, and that the court force Apple to stop violation of THX's patent.

HTC and Android in general emerged as the winners in a patent dispute in Germany, which was launched by Nokia against the company The court in Mannheim ruled that HTC did not violate Nokia's two disputed patents, marked EP0812120, which describes a technology called “Method for using services offered by a telecommunication network and telecommunication system, and a terminal for it”, and EP1312974 entitled “An electronic display Device and method of lighting control themselves.”

Microsoft has filed a patent application that describes how "smart" mobile phones can switch to "Inconspicuous" mode. The main idea is to put your phone into power saving, silent mode automaticaly.

Samsung’s rights to use the patents claimed by Ericsson have expired. Since they did renew their license for the use of this patented technology and some Samsung devices are based on it, Ericsson filed suit. Well, as you might have expected, Samsung has decided to fight back with a countersuit.

One of the most controversial games of the year, War Z will apparently be forced to change its name. Specifically, the US Patent and Trademark Office feels that the name of the game is too similar to Paramount's blockbuster movie World War Z with Brad Pitt in the lead role. Using the name War Z is currently suspended and it seems that the problematic game will eventually be forced to change its name. The deadline for filing an appeal is 90 days.

In the latest new patent that has been granted to Apple is a description of the advanced ways to manage incoming calls. The patent titled "Dynamic Context-Based Auto-Response Generation" describes methods for "smart" management of incoming calls, depending on whether we are talking with someone else or are simply unavailable.

There appears to be something in the air this month or perhaps it as always been there and people are just waking up to the smell. It is the smell of a company getting stomped by Karma over in the corner. The company in question is Apple. For a few years now Apple has been on a campaign against their rival in the mobile OS space; Android. We were not surprised to see them go this route as they did the same thing with Microsoft a long time ago and got their hats handed to them by Microsoft (a one-time partner). Oddly enough when Apple was financially on the brink of ruin it was Microsoft that bailed them out, but I am getting off the subject here. When Apple’s Steve Jobs declared war on Android we had more than a few flashbacks to the days of law suits flying back and forth between Microsoft and Apple. However, Apple did not go after Google head to head; perhaps they thought they had learned something from the past, then again maybe they did not. After all they went after almost every Android phone maker even ones that they buy parts for their own products from!

While Apple is cuddled and watched over by the American courts, in other parts of the world situation is quite the opposite of that. They are losing lawsuits against, now we can safely say - their greatest enemy - Samsung. According to a new decision from the British court on Friday, the company must pay court costs to Samsung for the lawsuit that Apple started and lost, in which they sued the Korean company for allegedly copying.

Microsoft is being sued over the ideas behind the company's entire visual identity, which is the base functionality of their new operating systems. The lawsuit is about the "live tiles" on the Windows Phone and Windows 8 interface. Two years ago, while advertising Windows Phone 7, Microsoft introduced the concept of "live tiles" that were used as a building block of the mobile interface of the OS and associated applications. The concept has now been extended to both Windows 8 and Microsoft's entire visual identity is based on the principle of simplicity, promoting "live tiles“.

Last week we ran an article about the way that Apple chose to comply with an order from a UK judge to set the record straight about their continuous claims that Samsung copied Apple with their Tab line of products. Although many read this as an order to apologize for slandering Samsung Apple did not see it that way and chose instead to only acknowledge the fact that the UK High Court had ruled that Samsung was not guilty of infringement and then followed that up with more claims that Samsung’s Tab Copied the iPad including a misleading statement that Samsung was found guilty in the US for this.