patents

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh has denied Samsung's request to keep its phone and device sales data out of the public's eye.

According to Bloomberg, which obtained a copy of an order filed earlier this week, Koh decided that Samsung must file and cannot seal an exhibit detailing total units sold on certain Samsung products. The products included in that exhibit, as well as the span of time in which the sales were registered, were not disclosed in Koh's order.

Koh has been at the epicenter of Apple and Samsung's vicious patent battle in … Read more

Patent law has long protected companies from having their products' appearance copied, as we saw during this year's copyright battle between Apple and Samsung over the shapes of their smartphones and tablets. But protections for design patents grew stronger this month, thanks to a new law signed by President Barack Obama.

The Patent Law Treaties Implantation Act of 2012, as it is known, amends federal patent law to implement two 5-year-old treaties: the Patent Law Treaty and the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs. The point of the treaties was to make … Read more

Apple has agreed to withdraw patent infringement allegations against Samsung's new Galaxy S3 Mini in exchange for assurances that the South Korean electronics giant will not market the smartphone in the U.S.

Apple disclosed the agreement today in a filing with the U.S. District Court for Northern California. The iPhone maker requested last month that the new smartphone and other Samsung products be added to the ongoing patent dispute between the two companies. Samsung countered that the S3 Mini was unavailable for purchase in the United States, however Apple noted that the new smartphone was listed on … Read more

Research In Motion is making an initial payment of $65 million to Nokia as part of the settlement of the patent dispute between the two companies.

The payment was disclosed in RIM's most recent 6-K filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was first spotted by All Things D.

RIM and Nokia announced the settlement on December 21, saying that RIM has agreed to make a one-time payment to the Finnish phone maker along with "ongoing payments" for the right to use Nokia's patents. At the time, they did not disclose the value … Read more

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 has patented a method that could help propel traditional glass screens into a flexible future.

The new patent, first discovered by Wired, was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. U.S. patent 8,336,334 details a method of using heat while bending glass over a mold in order to encourage a particular shape -- and so who's to say that Apple's iPhone and iPad might not one day sport the curved equivalent of a traditional, straight glass screen?

Apple's not alone in exploring the possibility of flexible screens for gadgets. Samsung, for … Read more

Apple received a patent for connectors use to replace or remove SIM cards in mobile devices.

The patent covers connectors that allow for multiple methods of inserting a SIM card, including the "plunger system," in which a user pushes on a plunger rod to eject the SIM card. The patent was first identified by Patently Apple.

Apple argues that the connector patent covers various kinds of SIM cards -- supposedly ranging from the larger standard cards to the micro-SIM cards that Apple uses in its mobile devices -- though the patent's actual claims are silent on that … Read more

Samsung is drawing closer and closer to the technology that will transform the future of smartphones and tablets. The company will show off its progress in a couple of weeks at CES 2013 when it demos a 5.5-inch flexible display with a 1,280x720-pixel resolution and a 267-pixel density (an upgrade to the one pictured above from CES 2011).

While these displays are still at least a couple of years away from being used in mainstream products, they represent the next big innovation in mobile devices. They will enable much thinner, more power-efficient smartphones and tablets, and a lot … Read more

Nokia and Research In Motion have settled all of their patent disputes, but the BlackBerry maker appears to have landed on the wrong side of the deal.

Nokia announced today that it has agreed to a deal with RIM that will end all patent infringement litigation between the companies. RIM has agreed to make a one-time payment to Nokia to settle the cases. Going forward, RIM will give Nokia "ongoing payments" for the right to use its patents.

The battle between RIM and Nokia dates back to 2003, when the companies signed a licensing agreement that allowed RIM … Read more