#Patentfun January 23 – 28 ’12

I’m a little behind on getting this article out this week, been playing too much with my new Galaxy Nexus, and starting to notice the whole issue with sharing screenshots with it being very blurry/low res.  Hrmm..

Anyhow, remember, #Patentfun is a round-up of the articles I’ve found regarding the happenings surrounding the lawsuits that involve Android in some way.

Let’s start this off with a nice info-graphic.  Everybody loves these:

image from: PCMag

• Apple has spent $100 Million in the HTC lawsuit scenario

Apple really doesn’t like competition, and if Steve Jobs’ opinion was shared among the company, they REALLY don’t like Android.  In their lawsuit wranglings with HTC alone it looks like they’ve spent $100,000,000 … or thereabouts.  And what was the outcome of that?  Well, the ITC did say that HTC was infringing, so HTC made a quick work-around and that was that.

So, Apple spent an absolute whack of money to get HTC to change a bit of code… and for the average user, there’s no noticeable difference.  How much really ahead is Apple about that?  Sure there’s the moral victory, but when the change was inconsequential for the end user … that was a pretty big expense for a moral victory.  There’s only so much they could sustain this rate of bleeding capital …

http://phandroid.com/2024/01/23/apple-100-million-in-the-hole-thanks-to-htc-lawsuit-says-report/

The Dave over at Android Police recently wrote a nice article about how Android is ever so slightly ‘winning’ the legal battles.  Worth the read!

• Dutch courts side with Samsung over Apple’s claims of infringement

Apple’s claims that the Galaxy tab 10.1 (note, not the 10.1N they released to just appease Apple) went on deaf ears in the Netherlands. This was the case that Apple primarily won an injunction on with their quick image show of the 2 devices (where they purposely made the Galaxy devices look relatively the same size, look relatively the same based on icon placement etc…).  It was nice to see that the judge used the term “narrow scope” for Apple’s claims.  I believe that’s legal talk for ‘wishy washy’.

So, if they ruled that this is fine, imagine what the rulings will be for the 10.1N (not due until mid February).

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2024/01/dutch-appeals-court-says-galaxy-tab-101.html

• So… the Galaxy Nexus isn’t part of Apple’s new suit on Slide-to-Unlock?

Recently Apple re-applied for patent infringement of their Slide-to-Unlock patent (which somehow they were granted, and yet Google got the “gesture to unlock”).  Now, if the Nexus isn’t a target, and most of the TouchWiz UI now has you slide the screen off, … we’re wondering what they’re targeting here.  Guess we’ll have to just wait to find out.

http://www.droid-life.com/2024/01/25/galaxy-nexus-not-involved-in-slide-to-unlock-apple-patent-case/

• Motorola, the company that won’t enter the license deal with Microsoft…

Glad to see Motorola stick to their guns on this one.  If you believe you’re in the right, and the overuse of a wishy washy patent system is unjustified, fight.  Well, FOSS gives a good run-down of the legal battles between MS and MMI.

Foss even gives a good view of the patents in question.  I’ll leave you to go look it up.

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2024/01/overview-of-microsofts-and-motorolas.html

• Motorola goes after Apple over iCloud

So, Motorola and Apple have had a few go-arounds in the courtroom.  This time it’s MMI going after Apple (sometimes the best defense is a good offense) and their use of the iCloud.

Even I have to wonder how Motorola owns cloud storage, but I guess there’s some latent string of verbiage about the way the code runs that Motorla invented first…

http://phandroid.com/2024/01/25/motorola-on-the-offensive-sues-apple-for-patent-infringement-relating-to-icloud-software/

• Samsung takes second loss in claims for 3G patent in Germany

This was Samsung’s hope to be pre-emptive on some Apple fights by going to the source of what makes a smartphone a smartphone… the data connectivity.

Well, Sammie just lost the second claim on some 3G patents that would put Apple into violation.

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2024/01/samsung-loses-second-german-3g-patent.html

Well, that’s how I saw some of the battles go this week.  There was lots more to talk about, but you can REALLY get bogged down on all the minutiae of the legalese.  I’m hoping to concentrate more on some of the outcomes, and their potential impact.

If there’s anything you’d like to hear more about, let me know!