courts

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Testimony from Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, was cut short today, but not before the executive made claims that the company did not rely on market research.

"We don't use any customer surveys, focus groups, or typical things of that nature," Schiller said. "That plays no role in the creation of the products."

The claims come on the heels of court filings unearthed earlier this month that show Apple's internal market research from May of last year. That study focused on iPhone owners, asking them … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--"This will be a very interesting case," U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh told prospective jurors today, the first day of a trial between Apple and Samsung in a federal court here.

It's safe to say that's an understatement. While the trial, which is expected to run about a month, focuses mainly on patent infringement, it's at the center of a battle between two tech giants who hope to gain more of a foothold in the mobile device market and the electronics world at large.

The two sides are scheduled to … Read more

Ever wondered what the thought process must have been like for Apple's designers in coming up with the early iterations of the iPhone and iPad? Or if there were any crazy versions that never made it to the shelf?

Now, thanks to the Apple vs. Samsung patent court case, you can take a look at some of the early sketches and prototypes of these devices by way of public court documents.

According to Ina Fried at All Things D, Apple filed several documents Saturday that include dozens of hand-drawn and computer-generated sketches of early iPhone and iPad designs, along … Read more

As the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial rapidly approaches, settlement talks between the two companies still seem to be stymied, according to Reuters.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with two of Samsung's top executives, vice chairman Choi Gee-sung and mobile chief Shin Jong-Kyun, in an undisclosed meeting last week to see if the two sides could resolve the matter before trial, according to Reuters. But the talks were to no avail -- mediation between the two companies still seems to have fallen short.

The two tech giants became embroiled in this legal battle in April 2011 when Apple filed … Read more

The French Supreme Court has ruled that Google may have to censor the words "torrent," "RapidShare," and "Megaupload" from its instant and autocomplete searches, according to TorrentFreak.

In its ongoing court case with French music industry group SNEP, Google has been accused of implicitly allowing copyright violations for not filtering out these words. The SNEP alleges that when users type in names of well-known musicians in Google search, file-sharing sites get added on with the autocomplete feature.

"We are disappointed by the court's ruling," a Google spokesperson told CNET. "Google … Read more

Patent lawsuits seem to be getting more common -- continually there are daily headlines of this company suing that company over intellectual property rights.

A new study released today confirms that lawsuits are increasing and says the overall cost of these cases in the U.S. was $29 billion in 2011.

The study, which was put out by Boston University, specifically looks at "non-practicing entities" (NPE), or "patent trolls." How these trolls operate is by buying and licensing patents without making the products of their own. Many major tech companies, like Apple, Google, and Samsung, have been criticized … Read more

A U.S. judge strongly questioned Apple's bid for an injunction against Motorola smartphones today, saying a ban on sales could have "catastrophic effects."

Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. District of Northern Illinois, who is presiding over the hearing to determine whether to grant Apple injunctive relief against Motorola phones that allegedly infringe on Apple patents, also said the U.S. patent system was in a state of "chaos," according to a Reuters account of the hearing.

Earlier this month, Posner canceled Apple's patent infringement jury trial against Google's Motorola Mobility … Read more

In an international hacking case, a Dutch man appeared in U.S. federal court today and pled not guilty to stealing at least 44,000 credit card numbers, according to the Associated Press.

Apparently, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

David Benjamin Schrooten, aka "Fortezza," is being targeted by federal prosecutors for allegedly hacking into computers and stealing massive amounts of credit card numbers. Once he obtained the numbers, he allegedly sold them in bulk quantities via different Web sites. The 44,000 is reportedly from just one sale.

Police caught onto Schrooten's alleged heist … Read more

While other parts of its business appear to be on the ropes, Research In Motion learned today that it is free to use the BBM acronym to describe its popular BlackBerry Messenger software.

A Canada Federal Court found that the BlackBerry maker's use of BBM did not infringe on the trademark of broadcast measurement firm BBM Canada, which has owned the trademark for more than 50 years, because the two companies operated in different industries.

"We are pleased that the Federal Court of Canada sided with RIM and confirmed that RIM's use of BBM does not infringe … Read more