patents

Google patent points to multi-flash smartphone camera

Google has been granted a patent for LED technology that could be used to boost smartphone camera capabilities.

Patent 8,363,157, granted yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, documents how LED lighting could be used to give a mobile device the ability to fire with multiple flashes.

Relating to "flash mechanisms for digital cameras that are incorporated into mobile communication devices such as smartphones and tablet computers," the patent documents how a smartphone's shots could be improved by boosting flash capabilities.

As shown, one hypothetical design for the LEDs would ring the LED … Read more

Judge: Samsung didn't 'willfully' infringe Apple patents

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh handed down some of her first post-trial rulings from the much publicized Apple v. Samsung patent case this evening.

In a 32-page order filed today, the judge said she predominantly agreed with the jury's decision that Samsung infringed on seven of Apple's design and utility patents. However, she disagreed with one finding -- that Samsung "willfully" infringed on Apple's patents.

What this means is that Apple will now be unable to triple its damage awards. If Koh had agreed with the jury on this decision, Apple could have … Read more

Newegg wins key 'shopping cart' lawsuit against patent troll

Newegg last week won an important ruling that could have a profound impact on e-commerce.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week ruled (PDF) that Newegg has not violated patents held by a company called Soverain related to the function of shopping carts and other e-commerce technologies. The court found that Soverain's claims -- that Newegg was violating its patents through its online shopping cart -- were "invalid for obviousness."

Ars Technica was first to report on the judgement.

Soverain doesn't actually make use of its patents in an e-commerce business. … Read more

Apple wants to let you know when to buy new shoes

Hold the phone -- Apple wants to let you know when it's time to buy your next pair of shoes.

In a recently published patent application, the tech giant has proposed embedding sensors in footwear that would track the wearer's activity and send a notification when it's time for a new pair. The application describes a "Shoe wear-out sensor, body-bar sensing system, unitless activity assessment and associated methods."

The application's summary describes the system thus:

A body bar sensing system for sensing movement of a body bar may be provided. The body bar sensing … Read more

ITC decides to review Apple complaint against Samsung

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) decided yesterday to review a ruling made by an administrative law judge in the ongoing patent-infringement saga between Apple and Samsung.

Judge Thomas Pender in October ruled that Samsung had violated one of Apple's iPhone design patents, as well as three software feature patents, in some of its mobile products. Two other patents brought before the judge by Apple were found to have not been violated by Samsung.

In a memo published yesterday (PDF), the ITC announced that it will review the ruling passed down by Judge Pender. The organization said that … Read more

Steve Jobs threatened Palm with patents over no-poaching deal, says court filing

Steve Jobs threatened Palm with a patent lawsuit if the company didn't agree to a deal with Apple whereby neither company would poach the other's workers, according to a legal filing made public today that quotes former Palm CEO Edward Colligan.

The filing, a civil lawsuit brought by five tech workers against Apple, Google, and others that alleges the companies plotted to drive down wages, includes the following sworn statement from Colligan:

"In 2007, I received a call from Steve Jobs, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple. In the months before the call, several employees had moved … Read more

Intellectual Ventures settles patent lawsuit with Microsemi

Patent holding company Intellectual Ventures announced today it had resolved its long-running patent infringement litigation with chipmaker Microsemi.

The settlement dispenses with all patent litigation between the two and makes Microsemi a licensee of segments of Intellectual Ventures' massive patent portfolio. Financial terms of the settlement were not revealed.

Microsemi was one of a handful of companies sued for patent infringement in 2010 by Intellectual Ventures, a patent holder co-founded by Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former chief technology officer. Altera and Lattice Semiconductor, other makers of FPGA (field-programmable gate array) logic chips, were also accused of infringing up to five … Read more

Apple, Samsung add new devices to upcoming patent suit

A slew of new devices have been tacked onto the patent lawsuit in a legal order that was jointly filed by Apple and Samsung today. Included in the devices are Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S III.

U.S. Judge Paul Grewal agreed to let both companies add devices to the case, which is scheduled to go to trial on March 31, 2014. The order includes both Apple and Samsung's amended stipulations to their original filings, which are part of Apple's Galaxy Nexus case and not the patent trial between the two companies that ended last August. … Read more

SurfCast and Microsoft prep for September 3 'live tile' trial

Later this year, a handful of bankers and former IBM executives from tiny SurfCast could square off against Microsoft in the U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine, in a patent dispute where potentially hundreds of millions of dollars would be at stake.

On October 30, 2012, SurfCast filed a complaint alleging that Microsoft's use of dynamically updating "live" tiles in its Windows 8 user interface infringes on SurfCast's U.S. patent. Since the filing of the suit, the two parties have been in discovery in anticipation of a September 3, 2013, trial date. 

The … Read more