patent lawsuit

The George Lucas-founded audio-and-visual tech firm THX has filed a patent suit against Apple for allegedly swiping speaker technology for the iPhone, iPad, and iMac.

The suit, filed Thursday in federal court in San Jose, Calif., involves a patent called "Narrow Profile Speaker Configurations and Systems," which essentially covers various setups for directing sound from a small speaker or speakers toward a narrow, slotted opening in such a way as to produce the best possible sound quality.

The abstract of the patent says the speaker units "may be integral with or attached to electronic appliances such as … Read more

A recently filed lawsuit over Apple's Siri has already run into a wrinkle -- the judge assigned to the case has stepped down because of his "interest" in Apple.

District Court Judge Gary Sharpe recused himself from the case yesterday, citing a law that says, "Any conduct that would lead a reasonable [person] knowing all the circumstances to the conclusion that the judge's 'impartiality might reasonably be questioned' is a basis for the judge's disqualification."

It's not clear what Sharpe's "interest" in Apple was, but most likely it was … Read more

This much is clear about the patent showdown between Yahoo and Facebook: Yahoo is losing friends left and right.

Last month, Yahoo sued Facebook, claiming the world's largest social-networking company had infringed on 10 of its patents. And yesterday, Facebook countersued, arguing essentially that it hadn't done anything wrong, but hey, as long as we're on the subject, Yahoo violated 10 of our patents.

For many in the technology business, this is just the latest chapter in a battle that most would like to see wrap up -- and quickly as possible, please. But since Yahoo was … Read more

Another day, another ruling in a German court battle between Apple and Motorola Mobility.

Judge Dr. Peter Guntz of the Munich I Regional Court ruled today that Motorola violates a photo gallery patent Apple holds, according to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who was in attendance at the proceeding. The ruling gives Apple the opportunity to ban all infringing Motorola products, including two of the company's Android-based smartphones and the Xoom tablet. Mueller didn't say which two smartphones were included in the suit.

Apple is not compelled to enforce the ban. However, if it does, Mueller says that Motorola … Read more

In the ongoing global patent battle between Apple and Samsung over smartphones and tablets, a U.S. judge has denied Apple a preliminary injunction that would have temporarily prevented Samsung from selling four of its devices in the United States.

In a ruling issued late Friday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh decided that allowing Samsung's Galaxy S 4G, Infuse 4G, Droid Charge, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices to remain on sale would not harm Apple enough to justify the injunction. She also said such an injunction would likely benefit other gadget makers at Samsung's expense.

In … Read more

Hulu got more bad news late last week in the form of a patent infringement lawsuit.

Rovi Technologies, a provider of digital home-entertainment products, accused the online video service of infringing on three of its patents related to online TV program guides and search products in a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Delaware. Rovi, which was formed after Macrovision's acquisition of Gemstar-TV Guide International in 2008, seeks compensation for the alleged infringement as well as attorneys' costs and related fees.

Rovi, which licenses its patents to Apple, Microsoft, Comcast, and DirecTV, said in the lawsuit … Read more

Oracle is seeking $2.6 billion in damages from Google as part of its patent infringement lawsuit over Java.

In a document filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oracle cited the $2.6 billion figure based on estimates by the company's damages expert, Iain Cockburn, a professor of finance and economics at Boston University.

That specific figure runs contrary to Google's interpretation, which is far broader in range. In a June 18 filing from Google and documented by FOSS Patents, the search giant came to the conclusion that if it were … Read more

Intellectual Ventures, founded by former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold, filed three patent infringement lawsuits today against nine companies in the security, memory, and chip markets.

One lawsuit names as defendants Check Point Software Technologies, McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro and accuses them of infringing on four of its patents related to antivirus and Internet security, according to the lawsuit available for download here.

The second suit accuses Elpida Memory and Hynix Semiconductor, makers of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and Flash memory, of infringing between five and seven of its patents. And the final suit alleges that three … Read more

Microsoft on Tuesday filed a new patent-related lawsuit against Motorola, its second against the company in the past six weeks.

The new lawsuit, which was filed earlier today with the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, accuses Motorola of charging too much for royalties on its patent licenses, which Microsoft uses in both the wireless networking and video decoders found in the Xbox.

News of the lawsuit was first reported by Reuters.

A Microsoft spokesperson told CNET:

Microsoft filed an action today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington … Read more