patents

Samsung sues LG Display over OLED patents

Samsung has filed a lawsuit against LG Display in an effort to convince the court that seven of LG's OLED displays don't hold water.

Filed with an intellectual property tribunal in Korea, the suit is seeking to invalidate LG's patents on the grounds that they "lack innovation," according to the Yonhap News agency.

This is just the latest salvo in the ongoing legal turmoil between the two companies.

In September, LG Display filed suit against Samsung, claiming violation of the seven (organic light-emitting diode) patents in question. The lawsuit alleges that Samsung violated the design of LG's OLED panels, driver circuitry, and device design, … Read more

Google's former head of patents moves to U.S. Patent Office

Michelle Lee, Google's former head of patents and patent strategy and a vocal critic of a system she feels is too welcoming of frivolous patent lawsuits, is joining the public sector as the head of a new Silicon Valley patent office.

The news first got tweeted by Santa Clara University School of Law professor Eric Goldman

This should make for some interesting discussion. Lee, who until May was in charge of Google's patent strategy, is on record criticizing the ease with which patent trolls have been able to file patent lawsuits. She has argued that the system is … Read more

Apple granted design patent for turning pages

Since the announced departure of Apple iOS chief Scott Forstall, much has been written about skeuomorphism -- the practice of designing things to look like their real-world counterparts. Apple has made a heavy practice of it in its software, and now the company has another part of that experience patented in the U.S.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week granted a rather noteworthy design patent for the digital equivalent of the page turn (PDF), that time-honored tradition of flipping pages while looking through a book, a magazine, or other stack of bound paper.

Apple filed for … Read more

Microsoft shakes up Windows leadership (week in review)

Microsoft experienced an executive shakeup this week that surprised many.

Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft executive who turned the company's Windows franchise around and just led the effort to release Windows 8, left the company, effective immediately. Sinofsky, a controversial figure at the company, was reportedly warring with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

The company said the decision behind Sinofsky's departure was mutual, though the abruptness of the announcement might suggest otherwise. Some Microsoft watchers had pegged Sinofsky as a CEO-in-waiting, but he developed a reputation for being divisive and not working well with executives in other divisions.

In … Read more

Apple nabs 1,024 patents from Rockstar Consortium

The deal is sealed -- Apple has bought 1,024 patents and patent applications from the Rockstar Consortium.

According to Business Insider, the Rockstar Consortium has been quietly passing the patents to the tech giant over the past six months.

The announcement comes via Korean news agency Yonhap News, which reported that a Korean regulator confirmed that the patents and patent applications were transferred from the consortium to Apple. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database also confirms that the patents were transferred.

Rockstar Consortium is a group of companies -- Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and … Read more

Apple patent aims to stifle noise from iPhone's vibrate mode

Annoyed by that buzzing sound triggered by your phone's vibrate mode? Apple may one day provide a solution.

Dubbed "Vibration In Portable Devices," a patent filed today with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details an Apple invention in which that annoying sound can be monitored and reduced.

Apple's technology would use sensors to detect the vibrations of the phone when in vibrate mode. If the sensors determine that the sound given off by the vibration exceeds a certain level, that noise is automatically toned down. The technology could also decrease the sound and even … Read more

A display that resizes as your face moves? Apple zooms in

Your iPhone or iPad may one day be able to resize its display based on the distance from your face.

Filed today with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a new Apple patent application dubbed "Scaling of Visual Content Based Upon User Proximity," details a method by which the display automatically scales as your face moves toward or away from the device.

The content on the display would initially size itself based on how near or far your face is. Moving your face (or the device) would then trigger the display to resize itself accordingly based on a different scaling factor.… Read more

Samsung won't talk settlement with Apple? Yeah, right

Samsung's insistence that it has no plans to negotiate a settlement with Apple may simply be a head fake in a long-running legal game between the two companies.

It's foolish to rule out the possibility of peace between the two given how far the fight's gone and how much is still left to sort out legally,say intellectual property and legal experts.

"When it's all said and done, they have so many litigations, in so many geographies, with billions of dollars at risk," says Richard Ehrlickman, the president and founder of patent brokerage firm … Read more

Microsoft, Motorola patent row set for trial tomorrow

SEATTLE--Microsoft will square off with Google's Motorola Mobility tomorrow in a federal court here, arguing over how much the software giant should pay the wireless technology company to use its patents.

The case pits the two tech titans against one another in an arcane but significant battle over reasonable fees companies can charge for use of technology based on patents considered essential.

Motorola wants royalties that Microsoft says could reach $4 billion a year to use video streaming and Wi-Fi technology that it has baked into Windows and its Xbox video game console. Motorola holds patents that are part … Read more