FOSS Patents
A bad month for Android: April brought 7 major patent setbacks
May 3, 2013: 8:27 AM ETApril was the cruelest month yet for Google and Motorola on the patent front.
FORTUNE -- It was Google (GOOG) against the world last month, as it fought and lost patent battles directly or by proxy with Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Nokia (NOK), HTC and ZTE. "Google shoot blanks in smartphone patent wars," wrote Thomson Reuters' Reynolds Holding. Or as The Verge's Nilay Patel put it: "Does anyone know why Google bought Motorola?"
FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller has been keeping score, and by his count Google's Android and its standards-essential-patent (SEP)-heavy Motorola subsidiary suffered seven major defeats in April, two medium losses, two medium wins and one minor slow-down:
- Medium win for Google: Apple's slide-to-unlock patent invalidated in Germany (decision is appealable)
- Medium loss for Google: Corrected ITC ruling finds Android's text selection to infringe two more claims of an Apple patent
- Minor issue for Google's Motorola: Florida judge slows down multi-patent case that's more important to Google than to Apple
- Major defeat for Google and Samsung: Apple defeats Samsung in California claim construction battle on all patents but one SEP
- Major defeat for Google: Foxconn parent Hon Hai signs with Microsoft: 20th royalty-bearing Android patent license deal
- Major defeat for Google's Motorola: Setback for Google: German court finds Microsoft licensed to Motorola's push notification patent
- Major defeat for Google: Court-determined FRAND rate for Motorola's standard-essential patents is a blow to Google
- Medium win for Google and HTC: German court dismisses (another) Nokia lawsuit against HTC targeting Google Play
- Major defeat for Google: ZTE becomes 20th device maker to take Android patent license from Microsoft
- Major defeat for Google: German appeals court stays Google v. Apple case over (likely invalid) push notification patent
- Major defeat for Google's Motorola: Google loses appeal against Microsoft's German injunction over multi-part text message interface
- Medium loss for Google and Samsung: Apple prevailed over Samsung on post-trial procedures: limited retrial in November
DISCLOSURE: Although I've always found his legal reporting to be fair and accurate, it should be noted that Mueller does paid consulting work for Microsoft and Oracle (ORCL), both of which have faced off against Google in patent court.
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Samsung: We could end up owing Apple more than $1.05B
How could the press get the effect of a judge's high-profile ruling so wrong?
FORTUNE -- When Judge Lucy Koh last month ordered a new trial to determine the proper damage award for 14 of the 28 Samsung devices found by a jury last summer to have infringed Apple (AAPL) patents, nearly every reporter covering story followed Reuters' lead:
"Apple had a major setback in its ongoing mobile patents battle with Samsung Electronics MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 1, 2013 6:35 AM ETPosted in: $1.05 billion, Apple, Award, Florian Mueller, FOSS Patents, Infringement, Judge Lucy Koh, Patent, Samsung -
Apple wants Steve Jobs' bio excluded from Samsung trial
If it gets its way, the jury will hear no talk of Apple waging thermonuclear war on Android
FORTUNE -- FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller has been reading through the motions Apple (AAPL) and Samsung filed in advance of their upcoming patent trial in the Northern District of California and has come across a few interesting tidbits.
Both sides want to exclude some of the things that have been written about them.
Samsung doesn't want MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 1, 2012 10:53 AM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, Florian Moeller, FOSS Patents, Google, iPhone, Patents, Samsung, Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson -
Apple-Samsung settlement talks set (prematurely) for May
Ordered to meet on 5/21-22. But with more than 50 cases pending, it's probably too early
FORTUNE -- Tim Cook seemed to be putting some distance between himself and Steve Jobs during Tuesday's conference call when he was asked about Apple's (AAPL) flexibility in its ongoing patent disputes with the makers of Google (GOOG) Android phones.
"I've always hated litigation, and I continue to hate it," he replied. "We just want people MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 28, 2012 10:58 AM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, Florian Mueller, FOSS Patents, Google, iPhone, Mobile, Patents, Samsung, Steve Jobs, Tim Cook -
Apple forced to shut off push e-mail service in Germany
Motorola Mobility (and Google) give Cupertino a taste of its own patent medicine
Following a loss three weeks ago in Germany's Mannheim Regional Court, Apple (AAPL) late Thursday informed German iPhone customers that e-mail would no longer be "pushed" to their phones -- BlackBerry style -- through their iCloud or MobileMe services.
Pending Apple's appeal, which could take months, iPhone users in Germany will have to retrieve their e-mail the old-fashioned way: by MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 24, 2012 7:15 AM ETPosted in: Apple, European Commission, Florian Mueller, FOSS Patents, FRAND, Germany, Google, iCloud, iPhone, Microsoft, MobileMe, Motorola, Patents -
Apple goes after Motorola and Google with legal guns blazing
Seeks billions in damages and an injunction against the flagship Android 4.0 phone
One measure of how quickly events are unfolding in the smartphone patent wars is the number of typos appearing in Florian Mueller's FOSS Patents dispatches. The German-born blogger's coverage of the "thermonuclear war" Steve Jobs promised to unleash against Google's (GOOG) Android operating system are closely read by all sides in the cross-continental disputes, and lately he's hardly had MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 12, 2012 3:42 AM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, AppleInsider, Florian Mueller, FOSS Patents, FRAND, Google, iPhone, Mobile, Motorola, Patents, Qualcomm -
Chutzpah: Google also wants 2.25% of every iPhone sale
It's not enough that Google borrowed the phone's look and feel to make Android?
It took a Techmeme news cycle for the import of Google's (GOOG) letter to the IEEE -- the nonprofit organization that sets technical standards for everything from AC/DC converters to Wi-Fi networks -- to sink in.
Early reports praised the company for joining Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) in their calls for adherence to the "fair, reasonable and MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 9, 2012 6:02 AM ET -
iPhone patent wars: What's going on in Germany?
Apple forced to pull older iPhones off its online store, faces an injunction on push e-mail
UPDATE: Sales of Apple's iPhones resumed Friday. See here.
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It was a crazy day for Apple (AAPL) in Germany.
First it removed the iPhone 4 and 3GS from its German online store -- the first time, as far as we know, that the company has been forced to stop selling a product because of alleged MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 3, 2012 10:56 AM ET -
Apple vs. Android: A grueling patent war of attrition
HTC was forced to drop one feature. Motorola may have to drop another. More to come.
Many commentators took at face value HTC's declaration of "an actual victory" after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that it had infringed Apple's (AAPL) patent on software that allowed a user to dial a number embedded in an e-mail simply by clicking on it. That particular feature was only one of 10 patents Apple MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 23, 2011 6:58 AM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, Florian Müller, FOSS Patents, Google, HTC Corporation, International Trade Commission, IP, ITC, Mobile, Motorola, Patents, Steve Jobs -
Top Android phone maker faces possible U.S. import ban next week
Shares of HTC are down sharply in advance of a ruling on a key Apple patent suit
HTC shipped more than 5.7 million smartphones to the U.S. last quarter, according to Canalys, beating out Samsung and Apple to become the country's leading smartphone vendor.
So there's a lot at stake for the giant Taiwanese phone maker -- and indeed for the manufacturers of all Google (GOOG) Android phones -- in the ruling MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 5, 2011 7:41 AM ETPosted in: Android, Apple, Canalys, Florian Mueller, FOSS Patents, Google, HTC, International Trade Commission, iPhone, ITC, Mobile, Patents, Steve Jobs
