patent

Federal judge tosses Apple patent lawsuit against Motorola

A U.S. district court judge in Wisconsin has just dismissed Apple's patent case against Motorola Mobility, now a Google unit.

According to the blog Foss Patents, which was first to report today's decision, Judge Barbara Crabb, of the Western District of Wisconsin, dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning that Apple will have to successfully appeal her decision to revive the case. Apple can't simply refile in another district court.

Apple filed suit against Motorola Mobility in March 2011 after Motorola sought 2.25 percent of all net sales on iOS products that use essential industry standard … Read more

Apple patent application involves theft-alarm for phones

Imagine if an iPhone had the equivalent of a car alarm. Would a loud, annoying alarm sound when a thief ran off with the device? Or would the alarm ring out when a stranger just tried to look at the phone?

These are questions Apple explores in a patent application filed today. Titled "Acceleration-based theft detection system for portable electronic devices," the application involves a smartphone deciphering what kinds of movement take place during a phone robbery.… Read more

Nokia not blocking multiple users on Android phones

Nokia says it's not preventing Google from rolling out multiuser features for phones despite a report suggesting it was playing spoiler for the latest version of Android.

Earlier this week, TechCrunch speculated that Google isn't including multiple account functionality on Android for phones because Nokia already owns the patent for that capability. Nokia has told CNET that wasn't the case.

Nokia had filed for such a patent, but it abandoned its efforts several years ago.

"Though we did indeed file the patent application which has been cited in some of the coverage, we determined some time … Read more

Apple facing FaceTime patent suit

Apple is the latest company to feel the patent infringement pinch from a firm called Intercarrier Communications.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, contends that Apple's FaceTime and Messages apps violate ICC's Patent No. 6,985,748.

The patent in question refers to an "inter-carrier messaging service providing phone number only experience" and describes a method to send messages between different carriers using just a phone number.

ICC has been keeping the patent courts busy lately, according to PatentlyApple. In just the past five days, the company has … Read more

Microsoft sued over Windows Live Tiles

Microsoft is already facing lawsuits related to the just-launched Windows, with an operating system technology designer accusing Microsoft of ripping of its patent for "tiles."

SurfCast, in a complaint filed yesterday in a U.S. District Court in Maine, said Microsoft infringes one of its four patents -- No. 6,724,403 -- by "making, using, selling, and offering to sell devices and software products" covered by SurfCast's patent. That includes mobile devices using the Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems as well as PCs using Windows 8/RT.

The company also … Read more

Apple wins patent on iOS maps integration

Apple has won a patent for built-in mapping applications running on its mobile operating system.

Referred to as "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for providing maps, directions, and location-based information," the patent, which was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, describes -- as one might expect from the title -- the way in which maps, directions, and location-based information are displayed on a touch-screen-equipped device.

AppleInsider was first to discover the patent.

The focus of Apple's patent appears to be improving the experience of actually using a mapping application. Apple's … Read more

Motorola withdraws some infringement charges from Xbox case

Microsoft will have fewer patents to contend with in its fight against Google-owned Motorola Mobility.

Motorola earlier this week filed a motion with the International Trade Commission asking that patent-infringement claims it has brought against Microsoft related to Wi-Fi be removed from consideration in their ongoing legal battle. Motorola didn't provide a concrete reason on why it decided against arguing its case.

FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who acknowledges having been a paid consultant for Microsoft, was first to report on the move.

Microsoft and Motorola are battling it out all over the world over several patents. Motorola has argued … Read more

Apple turns U.K. legal loss into new Samsung attack

A week after Apple lost an appeal at the U.K. High Court, the iPhone and iPad maker has followed the court's requirement to publish a notice its U.K. home page stating the court's finding that Samsung didn't infringe its patents.

But not in a way that shows any contrition. Instead, Apple used the notice as a new opportunity to make its case against its tablet rival.

On October 18, a U.K. High Court appeals judge ruled that Samsung did not infringe Apple's design patents in the U.K., after an earlier ruling by … Read more

Patent holder sues Apple over Quick Look file viewer

WhitServe, which owns intellectual property but doesn't make any real products, is suing Apple over allegations that versions of the Mac OS X operating system infringe on a file viewer patent it holds.

The complaint, filed today in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, claims that Apple's Quick Look violates Patent No. 7,921,139, a system for "sequentially opening and displaying files in a directory."

Introduced in 2007 with Mac OS X Leopard, Apple's Quick Look allows users a convenient way to preview the contents of a document before opening it fully in an … Read more