patents

Apple sued over sound tech by George Lucas' THX

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

Apple faces delay in decision over sales ban of iPhone, iPad

Apple and Samsung both have to wait a couple more months for the U.S. International Trade Commission to decide whether iPhone and iPad sales should be banned due to patent violations.

One of countless legal disputes between the two companies, this particular case kicked off in August 2011.

Samsung had filed a complaint with the ITC accusing Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch of violating four of its key patents. As such, the Korean phone maker requested that the products be banned from being sold in the United States.

Last September, a judge for the ITC issued a … Read more

Nintendo hit with $30.2M in damages over 3D patent suit

Nintendo was found liable of infringing on glasses-free 3D technology in a lawsuit that wrapped up today.

A New York federal jury concluded that the game maker used features of a patent developed by Seijiro Tomita in its handheld 3DS gaming device, according to Reuters. The jury awarded Tomita $30.2 million in compensatory damages.

"We are thankful to the jurors for their diligence and hard work," Tomita's attorney Joe Diamante told Reuters. "It has been a honor to represent Mr. Tomita and to protect his invention."

Tomita, who is a former Sony employee, said … Read more

A new dimension: Samsung Galaxy S4 may have 3D camera

3D hasn't really taken off in TVs, but Samsung may be inclined to give it a try in the Galaxy S4.

The Korean electronics giant has filed for a trademark for "2D 3D Movie & Still," and it also filed for a patent related to a panoramic imaging lens and panoramic imaging system.

Samsung noted in its trademark filing that the application covers software for smartphones, software for tablets, digital cameras, USB flash drives, mobile telephones, portable media players, portable computers, rechargeable batteries, smartphones, tablets, wireless headsets, and lenses for cameras. That's a pretty extensive list.… Read more

Abe Lincoln's patent for a river navigation device

On March 10, 1849, eight score and four years ago yesterday, a future president brought forth on this continent a new notion for improving river navigation.

That was the day Abraham Lincoln filed a patent application for his imaginative method of "Buoying Vessels Over Shoals."

At age 22, Lincoln had been a crewman on a flatboat that got stuck on a dam at New Salem, Ill., a bit of Lincoln folklore depicted in the 1940 film "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," with Raymond Massey in the starring role.

After another riverboat grounding incident in 1848 when he … Read more

HTC scores patent victory over Nokia in Germany

HTC and Android have both emerged as victors in a patent squabble with Nokia in Germany.

The District Court of Mannheim ruled today that HTC did not violate two Nokia patents in question, according to the IDG News Service.

The two cases stem from last May, when Nokia filed lawsuits against HTC, BlackBerry, and Viewsonic, citing 45 different patent violations among the three sued companies. HTC has been seeking licensing fees from the three companies for using the technologies described in the patents.

Nokia had accused HTC of infringing on its EP0812120 patent, which details a "method for using … Read more

Google reaches deal with MPEG LA over its VP8 video codec

Google has reached a licensing agreement with MPEG LA over patents that cover video compression, clearing the way for wider adoption of the Web giant's VP8 video codec and its streaming-video platform WebM.

The deal grants Google the right to sublicense the VP8 as well as the techniques in the forthcoming VP9 codec, which is already under development. MPEG LA also agreed to abandon its efforts to form a VP8 patent pool, which would have allowed it to cross-license its video patents.

Financial terms of the arrangement were not revealed.

"This is a significant milestone in Google's … Read more

Google Maps facing ban in Germany as trial advances

A patent battle between Google and Microsoft could see Google Maps banned in Germany.

Florian Mueller, of FOSS Patents, reported from court in Munich today, where he said the tide is shifting against Google:

Judge Dr. Matthias Zigann of the Munich I Regional Court just told Google and its Motorola Mobility subsidiary in no uncertain terms that his court is at this point (prior to counsel's argument on claim construction, infringement and validity) inclined to hold Google Inc., its subsidiary Motorola Mobility LLC and MMI's German subsidiary liable for infringement of a key Microsoft patent, EP0845124 on a &… Read more

Apple resurrects patent claim against Google's Motorola

Apple is attempting to revive a patent-infringement claim against Google's Motorola Mobility unit over touch-screen technology, according to Reuters.

Apple asked a U.S. appeals court to reinstate the claim after the U.S. International Trade Commission had earlier ruled that one of the related patents was invalid and Motorola hadn't infringed on the second patent.

Apple contends that Motorola is copying its technology that allows for transparent screens to sense multiple touches in different locations, allowing users to operate a phone by swiping or tapping the screen. The technology is fundamental to the current generation of smartphones … Read more