infringe

The punches just keep coming for Zynga.

Electronic Arts is suing the social games creator for copyright infringement, alleging that Zynga ripped off EA's "The Sims Social" when it created "The Ville," EA said today in a press release.

The gaming giant filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California today.

The Sims Social is the Facebook version of EA's "The Sims" game. After launching in August 2011, the game has gained "several million active" users on Facebook, according to EA's press … Read more

Oracle has won at least one legal battle this week. SAP is paying the hardware giant $306 million in damages resulting from a copyright infringement suit.

Unlike the fight against Google, it looks like victory over SAP really is a payday. SAP's bill to Oracle continues to get bigger as Oracle's general counsel Dorian Daley said in a statement that SAP will have to pay "a minimum of $426 million, including attorneys’ fees."

Oracle originally filed the lawsuit in 2007 against SAP, arguing that SAP downloaded and copied intellectual property. The case didn't go to … Read more

Consumers eyeing Samsung's Galaxy Nexus will continue to find the phone available for sale.

Samsung scored a minor victory this week by continuing to escape a ban on the popular smartphone, at least for the time being. On Monday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Samsung by extending the suspension of the preliminary injunction on the Nexus.

To recount the play-by-play action, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh had given the nod to Apple in June by granting its request for the temporary ban on the Nexus based on claims that … Read more

A U.K. judge ordered Apple to publish a notice on its UK website and in British newspapers informing the public that Samsung did not copy the iPad's design, Bloomberg reported today.

Judge Colin Birss said the notice should explain the court's July 9 decision that Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablets do not infringe on Apple's design.

The notice is to be posted for six months and published in several newspapers and magazines to save Samsung's image. Apple's lawyer tried to argue that it would be like the company having to publish an advertisement for … Read more

HTC won a U.K. High Court case after a judge today ruled the Taiwanese smartphone maker has not infringed four of Apple's European-held patents.

Judge Christopher Floyd also said that three of the four patents were invalid, according to Bloomberg. 

The only patent that was ruled to be valid relates to Apple's photo-management software, but HTC did not infringe on it, according to the court.

The other three invalid patents relate to Apple's multitouch software, alphabet-changing software, and the iPhone and iPad's slide-to-unlock feature.

The same four patents are to be tested in … Read more

Court documents reveal that Yahoo and Facebook are in settlement negotiations over their patent infringement dispute, Bloomberg reported today.

Yahoo's lawyers have asked a U.S District judge for a two-week extension on deadlines to file replies in the lawsuit while the companies talk about a settlement. The lawyers also asked for a two-week delay in a motion hearing now set for Aug. 10.

Representatives for both Yahoo and Facebook declined to comment on the case or the negotiations.

A big question is whether settlement terms would include cross-licensing of patents between the one-time partners and deeper integration of … Read more

The judge overseeing Apple and Motorola's patent lawsuit has decided to grant Apple's request for an injunction hearing, Foss Patents reported today.

U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner has set the hearing for the patent infringement case over patents related to 3G capabilities for Wednesday in Chicago. Poser decided to cancel the case's jury trial last week because he didn't think either side was able to prove injury.

The judge's decision indicates that if Motorola wants to seek an injunction, it will need to "address the bearing of FRAND on the injunction analysis.&… Read more

Apple is trying to ban Samsung's Galaxy S III even before it reaches U.S. shores.

Apple attorney Josh Krevitt said at a hearing yesterday that the company may file for a temporary restraining order as soon as today to stifle the Galaxy S III's U.S. debut on June 21, Reuters reported.

Citing the usual ongoing patent infringements, Apple believes Samsung's new phone and a host of other Android devices are in violation of patents related to iOS devices. Apple sued the Korean handset maker last year, saying that it copied key elements of the iPhone … Read more

Apple is again asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to crack down on HTC over patent violations.

Filing its third ITC complaint against HTC in the past three years, Apple says the company is still in violation of the same patents that led to a recent import ban of the HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE, says Foss Patents' Florian Mueller.

In response to the ban, HTC said that it worked around Apple's U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647. As a result, the ban was lifted, allowing the two HTC smartphones to pass through U.S. Customs.… Read more