Legal

You certainly can't call the past few days boring for Apple.

The company filled a vacancy left on its executive team, was handed a fairly major setback in a German court, and maybe had its next iPod's big trick unveiled in some alleged spy shots.

That was all on top of a petition from a third-party consumer-watchdog group demanding Apple improve working conditions at overseas factories where its products are made.

These events were joined by a juicy bit of news that came out during an interview with recording artist Neil Young, where Young casually mentioned that he … Read more

Following controversy, Apple has made changes to the end user license agreement that binds its iBooks Author software.

The legal agreement sparked ire following the software's introduction last month for its stipulation that books that were created with the free software would have to be made available only through Apple's iBookstore if authors intended to charge for them.

In the new version of the software that went out to users this afternoon, the company has modified the original language to state that the only works subject to that rule are files in the .ibooks format, files that only … Read more

Apple wants a Chinese court to take another look at an iPad-related trademark lawsuit it filed against a local company.

IDG News reports that Apple filed an appeal with the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province on January 5, seeking once again to have its case against Proview Technology heard. Last month, the court rejected the lawsuit but gave Apple 30 days to file an appeal.

The original legal fracas between the two companies began shortly after the iPad was introduced. Apple took aim at Proview for infringing its trademark of the iPad name. Proview countered by saying it … Read more

There wasn't a product launch to be seen, but Apple had one of its biggest news-making weeks yet.

That came in the form of what can only be described as a monster earnings report, with Apple breaking its own records, and those set by other companies.

Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2012 was its most profitable, and once again put it within spitting distance of Exxon Mobil to be the world's most valuable company by market cap. Perhaps something that's actually more easily understandable is the fact that the company sold more than 37 million iPhones … Read more

In the seemingly endless Apple-Motorola legal slugfest, Motorola has just taken a few new swings at its rival--possibly at the behest of its would-be acquirer, Google.

A new Motorola lawsuit, filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and spotted by patent blogger Florian Mueller, claims Apple is infringing on six of the company's patents with two of its latest product offerings: the iPhone 4S and iCloud.

In the suit--Motorola's second against Apple in this particular court--the company makes the case that Apple has infringed and continues to infringe on those … Read more

The technology world spent this past week with its collective eyes glued to the Consumer Electronics Show. But there was a truckload of news in Apple land, including announcements that confirmed three high-profile rumors.

Amid the product unveilings going on at CES in Las Vegas, Apple quietly sent out invites to an education-related event that it's holding next week in New York. That matched up with rumors from last week claiming the company was gearing up for an event across the country from its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.

That confirmation was joined by two others. Target confirmed that it was, … Read more

The cable for charging and transferring data from iPhones, iPods and iPads could soon undergo another major shift, switching to technology that could speed up both tasks.

In a freshly published patent application, picked up by Patently Apple this morning, Apple details a new type of cable that blends together increased power and faster data transfer technologies, including Thunderbolt.

While not going so far as to call out the technology by name, the patent application notes that the proposed cable could support DisplayPort and PCI Express--the two technologies that are bundled together in Thunderbolt's architecture.

Along with the faster … Read more

The other shoe has dropped in Samsung's efforts to block sales of Apple's iPhone 4S in France and Italy.

In a decision today, an Italian judge rejected Samsung's request from early October, which asked for a block on the sales of Apple's latest iPhone in the country.

The decision follows a similar one by a French court last month, which denied Samsung's request to ban the phone in France and required the company to pay 100,000 euros worth of Apple's legal fees.

Italian news outlet ANSA today first reported the news, which was … Read more

Were you one of the lucky ones on vacation this week? Then you might have missed a story or two. We've got you covered in this week's edition of Apple Talk Weekly.

The big news this week was numbers from last week's Christmas holiday. A research report from Flurry Analytics glommed together Android and iOS devices activated on Christmas day, noting that the combined number of 6.8 million devices was up 353 percent from the rest of the month, and 140 percent from the same day last year.

Making matters more interesting was a tweet a … Read more