Blog #26: Court rules Google will get Motorola's $12.5B price back from Microsoft if it waits almost 7,000 years

Court rules Google will get Motorola's $12.5B price back from Microsoft if it waits almost 7,000 years

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/court-rules-google-will-get-motorolas.html

This article discusses how much Return on Investment Google will get on its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola. It would take Google nearly 7,000 years of SEP royalties from Microsoft for this acquisition to return a positive profit. This article goes into a lot of further depth about how this acquisition for Google didn't make as much sense for the price they paid. There was a lot of speculation that Google made this purchase for Motorola's patents and not their other assets. 

This article featured the opinions of several other publications stating their opinions. Such as:

• AllThingsD: "Court Denies Motorola the Billions It Wanted From Microsoft for Standards-Essential Patents"
• ArsTechnica: "Court shreds power of Motorola’s standard-based patents"
• BBC: "US judge slashes $4bn Google royalty claim on Xbox" "Google's claim that Microsoft owes it billions in patent payments has been rebuffed by a US judge."
  
  
  This case is particularly interesting because it brings to light the potentially poor idea to purchase Motorola to just win patent wars. I feel it goes to show what lengths some companies will go to for success. 

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_QxfJ6A6Y 

Blog #25: April was disastrous for Google on the Android patent front: seven major losses, two smaller wins

April was disastrous for Google on the Android patent front: seven major losses, two smaller wins

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/april-was-disastrous-for-google-on.html

This was a very interesting article that did a great job of summarizing Google's current month in patent struggles. The article broke all the patent issues down into major and minor issues.

Some of the featured wins are:

Medium Level win: 

Google's Motorola not losing to an iPhone patent app was a critical win and have Samsung to thank for being their co-plaintiff.

Medium Level defeat: 

They lost the test selection to infringe on two of Apple's patents.

Major loss:

Apple defeating Samsung in a California Claim Construction case.

Major loss:

Foxconn parent Hon Hai signs with Microsoft: 20th royalty-bearing Android patent license deal.

This is a very interesting article because it goes to show how unsuccessful a lot of this litigation is for certain companies, Google especially. Furthermore, the fact that all this happened within one month is ridiculous and goes to show how frequent these cases occur. 

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwKunBUIE6M 

Blog #24: Apple calls out Google on flawed search methodology, responsibility for Android's infringement

Apple calls out Google on flawed search methodology, responsibility for Android's infringement

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/apple-calls-out-google-on-flawed-search.html

Apple is criticizing Google for their search methodology which is one of the most innovative and renowned search engines we have seen. Apple believes it can work with Google to correct these flaws. Apple believes the first step is for Google to list all appropriate search terms and custodians.

Apple is claiming this off of the belief that Google chooses to use sub-optimal search terms. Apple uses this example: 

"Apple claims to know that Google uses a different term internally for what Apple calls "slide to unlock". As a result, searches for "slide to unlock" wouldn't deliver too many documents in which Google employees discussed this patented technology."

Google is claiming that this would be and unnecessary burden for them in releasing all this. Google's main argument in this is that since it is the third party it has greater protection and shouldn't be required to share anything with Apple. It will be interesting to see how this develops and if Google strikes back at Apple. 

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxO2tfnArRk

Blog #23: Apple and Samsung submit proposals for narrowing their second California case for trial

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/apple-and-samsung-submit-proposals-for.html

Apple and Samsung submit proposals for narrowing their second California case for trial

Apple and Samsung submitted a joint case management statement together which means they put their positions within the same document. This basically implies that no further progress has been made towards a settlement.

Apple is proposing to limit the number of patents to five for one side and its number of patent claims to 12. Apple is much more confident than Samsung on the summary judgement stage. 

The main difference between Apple and Samsung is the variety of products they use. Samsung has a much more diverse offering of smart phones and tablets than Apple which means this patent war can be critical for its survivor given if it has to recall any items it will be on a much larger scale than Apple.


Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BW1ZoeDdCw 

Blog #22: Appeals court likely to give German iCloud users push email back on 24th, lift Google's injunction

Appeals court likely to give German iCloud users push email back on 24th, lift Google's injunction

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/appeals-court-likely-to-give-german.html

Since Google won a patent injunction claim in February 2012 which they started to enforce the same month. This required Apple to deactivate all push notifications for users accessing the iCloud within Germany. This not only affected the emails but calendar and contact updates. 

It is likely and highly expected that these will be nullified given two previous cases that have been nullified. One case was for the slide to lock function on iPhones while the other was for a Samsung phone. If Google in the end loses this case it will owe Apple a lot of money in damages for enforcing an incorrect junction. 

It is interesting to see a case actually complete and unfortunate to note that these companies will most likely appeal cases they lose to further drag out the process. The US patent system is not the only patent system that needs help, Germany does as well. 

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_3m5t-vQdg

Blog #21: Nokia streamlines ITC case against HTC, focuses on four patents after withdrawal of three others

Nokia streamlines ITC case against HTC, focuses on four patents after withdrawal of three others

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/nokia-streamlines-itc-case-against-htc.html

Nokia has now simplified its case with the ITC against HTC by going from 7 patent withdrawals to 4. This is a continued cut from the 9 they originally started with. Two of the patents they dropped are related to database synchronization while the other is a light guide patent. It was known early on that they would have to cut some of these, since 9 claims was not viewed as a realistic amount to pursue. 

The three patents dropped are:

 U.S. Patent No. 7,106,293, U.S. Patent No. 6,141,664 and U.S. Patent No. 7,209,911. 

All of this is occurring in Germany so it should be interesting to see how this develops international law and sets the precedent for future cases.

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXkyiRqUMAQ 

Blog #20: Corrected ITC ruling finds Android's text selection to infringe two more claims of an Apple patent

Corrected ITC ruling finds Android's text selection to infringe two more claims of an Apple patent

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/corrected-itc-ruling-finds-androids.html

A new ruling has been just handed down that say's Android's text selection has infringed on two or even more claims of Apple. This upcoming review is a chance for Samsung to overturn Apple's win. The specific claims are:

• Claim 34 adds to claim 33 the limitation that the base image (the one that's overlapped by a translucent image) must be active to receive user inputs. The initial determination had already established the fact that this requirement is met in connection with claim 29.
• Claim 35 additionally requires the electronic device to be a "handheld device", which is obviously the case in this investigation of Samsung smartphones and tablet computers.
  
  
  
  
  Furthermore, the ITC was convinced that Transform does infringe on patents. However they have asked the judge to overrule this ruling.
  
  This can turn out to be a very influential if the over the screen keyboard can be contested. Whenever a situation like this in patents happens it causes the company to force to be very creative  and go around what is usual. We saw this in the past with the iPhone and having rounded edges on the phone which forced Androids to adapt.
  
  This seems to be a good situation for patents since an idea is being protected and puts companies in a situation to be innovative. We are seeing the limits being pushed and new ideas emerging that will change the future. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC8_tqzlaa4

Blog #19: Samsung affirmatively says U.S. import ban would affect only older iPhones and iPads

Samsung affirmatively says U.S. import ban would affect only older iPhones and iPad

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/samsung-affirmatively-says-us-import.html

There have been recent developments in the Samsung, HTC, and Apple debates. From last year on May 31st, the ITC ruled that Apple infringed on one of Samsung's patents. The committee specifically ruled: 

" With respect to the '348 patent, Samsung’s infringement case before the Commission relied upon accused third and fourth generation Apple products that operate on the AT&T wireless network. If the Commission were to issue remedial orders covering articles covered by the asserted claims of the ’348 patent, would such an order cover (a) Apple products that operate on other wireless networks in the United States, and (b) later generation Apple products (e.g., iPhone 5, later iPad versions)?

Samsung now believes that all Apple products on all networks, not just AT&T, infringe on their patent and will fall within the scope of their import ban. This would however only deal directly with older products, any newer products would fall outside the scope of this ban. Although this seems bad it actually wouldn't make that much of a difference since Apple manufactures very few old phones and would only affect them in the repair business. It seems unlikely however that the courts would actually ban any Apple products since they Samsung didn't cooperate with FRAND regulations.

The patent war seems as hostile as ever but it seems interesting for all this trouble and Samsung may not even win because of a technicality. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnl-PSgzt8c

Blog #18: Google's promise not to assert 10 patents against open source software: just a PR stunt

Google's promise not to assert 10 patents against open source software: just a PR stunt

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/googles-promise-not-to-assert-10.html

In 2005, it became very common for tech companies to start showing good faith and asserting patents to the general public that could be mutually used. This tactic was made popular by IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Computer Associates. It was seen early on that this actually didn't do anything but it still showed good face for a little while.

Today Google had finally pledged it's first patent, nearly 8 years later. They pledged a total of ten. This may seem like a lot but it is actually an extremely low amount. By this point IBM has already pledged 500 patents and Sun has pledged over 1,600. Google pledging 10 is an extremely low amount considering they have over 17,000 total patents. 

It is clear that Google has ulterior motives given this low amount. Google also gave nine patents to HTC but this was only in attempt to sue Apple. 

This is a horrible outlook in terms of the patent wars since companies have try to put this on facade to seem as if they aren't as competitive but Google is a clear example they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPAqc2cbm9o

Blog #17: Skyhook v. Google patent trial slips into 2014 as result of consolidation of two lawsuits

Skyhook v. Google patent trial slips into 2014 as result of consolidation of two lawsuits

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/skyhook-v-google-patent-trial-slips.html

The trial between Google and Skyhook has taken another turn that will extend it into its 4th year. This all began back in 2010 when Skyhook sued for anti-competitive conduct. This was directly referring to Google interrupting relationships between Skyhook and other companies. These specific companies are Samsung and Motorola. 

The main reason this trial we continue on is because there has been a consolidation of lawsuits which mean the two lawsuits will be made into one. Combining these two lawsuits will take an additional amount of time among the lawyers. 

This article exemplifies how long these trials can go on and all the different tactics lawyers can use to sneak around these cases. This article does not bode well for the future of patent wars and the potential end. This also goes to show how much money is being wasted on lawyers over all these years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av9tv4G8YTY