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LG wants Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 banned in Korea

LG Display has fired back at Samsung in the ongoing patent skirmish between the two Korean companies.

An injunction filed today by LG seeks to ban Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 in Korea based on allegations that the tablet 's display panel violates certain LG patents. LG said it filed the suit over Samsung's use of OLED displays, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The patents in question are related to the viewing technology used in OLED displays, which helps people better see the screen from any angle. In addition to halting sales of the Galaxy Note, LG is … Read more

Apple loses bid for permanent ban on Samsung phones in U.S.

A U.S. District Court judge denied Apple's bid to ban a number of Samsung's devices from sale in the U.S., a little more than a week after a hearing on the matter.

In a late ruling Monday, Judge Lucy Koh -- who presided over the entire trial between the two tech giants -- denied Apple's bid for a sales ban on 26 Samsung products, saying that any infringing features were just part of a larger feature set, thus making a sales ban too broad.

"The phones at issue in this case contain a broad … Read more

Apple wins Dutch ban on certain Samsung Galaxy devices

A Dutch court ruled in Apple's favor today, ordering the ban of certain Samsung Galaxy tablets and smartphones due to patent infringement.

The ban applies to older Samsung Android-based products that use an Apple-patented method for scrolling through images in a photo gallery using a touch screen. According to the court, those are Samsung's Galaxy device versions 2.2.1 and higher that don't use Samsung's updated "blue flash" photo gallery technology.

The two companies have been in a constant battle over patents related to the mobile market. So far, neither has emerged as … Read more

Egypt works to pull the plug on online porn

Egypt is the latest country to attempt censorship of online pornography. According to Reuters, a public prosecutor pronounced yesterday that all porn Web sites must be blocked.

The government must "take the necessary measures to block any corrupt or corrupting pornographic pictures or scenes inconsistent with the values and traditions of the Egyptian people and the higher interests of the state," prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud said, according to Reuters.

Apparently, Mahmoud's order was following up on a 2009 court ruling that also deemed porn sites be banned. According to Reuters, Egypt's telecommunications minister, Hany Mahmoud, said … Read more

Report: Twitter bans German group for hate speech

On the heels of a firestorm of controversy over anti-Semitic tweets in France, Twitter has for the first time banned access in Germany to a German group's account due to its alleged hate speech.

According to the Financial Times (registration required), the San Francisco-based microblogging service has blocked access in Germany to the Twitter account belonging to an organization known as "Besseres Hannover," which means "Better Hannover" in English. The group is said to be a neo-Nazi organization, reported Danny Sullivan of Marketingland.com. The public expression of Nazi views is illegal in Germany.

Twitter'… Read more

Pinterest rolls out user blocking, flagging, and reporting

Despite Pinterest's clean image, some smut does work its way onto the site -- and now the company is doing something about it.

The social network announced today that it's rolling out a new feature that lets users report and block questionable activity. People will be able to block other users, flag certain pins, or report an entire user profile for review.

Here's more from a blog post by Pinterest software engineer Dannie Chu:

Blocking prevents both of you from being able to follow each other's boards as well as like, repin, and comment on each … Read more

Appeals court nixes a Galaxy Nexus ban requested by Apple

Samsung got a much-needed break from the courts today, as an appellate court overturned a sales ban on its Galaxy Nexus phone.

Today's ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the district court in California "abused its discretion" in imposing a preliminary injunction on Galaxy Nexus sales.

The appeals court decision means that the case will go back to the court in California to be reheard, according to Reuters.

The appeals court found several flaws in Apple's arguments for a Nexus ban.

In one example, Apple claimed that the … Read more

YouTube cedes to Turkey and uses local Web domain

Turkey and YouTube have a checkered past, so today's news isn't a big surprise -- the video-sharing site will now operate under a local Web domain -- "com.tr" -- and be subject to the country's content regulations and taxes.

According to Reuters, Turkey had been working to get YouTube to agree to this set-up for some time.

"This is an important development," Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told Reuters. "For a long time we have made a call to Internet firms in Turkey: 'You are operating in this country, … Read more

Apple: Expand the ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab

In a filing earlier today, picked up by Bloomberg, Apple said it wants to extend an earlier injunction on Samsung's Wi-Fi-only 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet to encompass the cellular version as well.

Apple cites the jury verdict from last week, which found the Wi-Fi version of that tablet to infringe on three of Apple's "feature" (i.e., software) patents. The 4G version of the tablet was also on the verdict form, but the jury didn't find that it infringed any of Apple's design (i.e., hardware) patents. … Read more