image from: http://www.getyourgadgetsgoing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Paten-Wars.jpg
Patentfun is my usually done on the weekend wrap-up of all the recent news in the litigation wars on Android and it’s affiliates. With my pipe band playing on the weekend out of town I just never got a change [I thought the US was the land of the free wifi — not so in the small towns I guess].
So, without further ado, here is last week’s legal offerings. [again, I’m not the author of the links, click them to read the full story, I’m just giving you my synopsis]
- Apple says no to Samsung’s peace offering in Australia. Apparently to try to stem the flow of legal fees Samsung had approached Apple to find another way around the battle [maybe offering them a licensing like they did with Microsoft?], but Apple rejected it. We don’t know what the offer was, just that Apple soundly rejected the deal. How this will affect the potential launch of either for the Christmas season is unsure. But apparently Apple wants to “maintain the status quo”; whatever that means.
- Patent-troll after wifi offerers. Now this isn’t about Android ‘per se’, but it’s just funny. A patent troll, Innovatio just launched itself after several companies, like Caribou Coffee, and some hotels and small business owners who provide wifi to their customers. They apparently are also going after Motorola and Cisco… but c’mon! Just because you offer free wifi you’re going to try to sue them? I think this is indicative of all this litigation lately – it’s just blackmail.
- The Canadian Copyright laws set to change. Again, not directly related to Android, but who knows what some of the implications of the new laws will be? We all know that much of the copyright laws are ancient and do need some modernization. I’m specifically scared over the: provide legal protection for businesses that choose to use technological protection measures or “digital locks” to protect their work as part of their business models. What if it allows carriers to lock the phones down even further [in an era where we’re trying to prevent carriers from locking phones].
- Samsung banning iPhone4s in Italy and France. Being really proactive, Samsung takes on Apple to kill off parts of Europe for them. This really is starting to read like some war, and who’s got which territories.
- Oracle v. Google suit postponed. This one will be a real legal slug-fest and there’s a whole slew of charges and accusations back and forth. It’s easy to see why Google recently announced their DART language to compete with Java, hopefully to avoid this kind of scenario in the future.
- Intellectual Ventures now patent trolling Motorola. One of the biggest patent trolling companies is now setting its sights on Motorola. Claiming Motorola infringes on 6 of their 35,000 patents [all 6 of which they have only recently come to own] they are filing suit. These guys have the greatest shell game of all. Apparently patents are the new pokemon cards – where you can buy/sell and trade as much as you want, so that it can suit you as you see fit.
- Google defends HTC in patent suit. HTC has been up against the wall taking some lashings, and in many of these suits you see that it’s Apple or Microsoft slamming up against the manufacturer of the phone. It’s nice to see Google stepping up and trying to defend their partners here. Google made the statement to a trade panel in the US that: “Apple is the largest seller of mobile computing devices in the U.S. Allowing this supplier to eliminate the competition from a fast-moving maverick competitor (HTC) could drive up prices, diminish service, decrease consumers’ access to the technology and reduce innovation.” Essentially, if we keep letting them bully, then Apple will be the only option, and have a monopoly, which is an even worse scenario. It’s important to note that they are not saying HTC/Android are ‘guilty’ of any infringement, only that if they were to be found guilty, the implications would be much worse.
So, that’s the courtroom drama I followed up on last week. What do you make of it all? Not many Apple v. _insert name here_ this week around.
[note I try to put the plaintiff in bold and the defendant in italics]
Oh, and here’s my shameless plug for more space!
Minus | DropBox | SugarSync
